An Unpleasant Surprise
by KE12
Summary: AU: After the first contact war Humans go into hiding before the council can begin peace talks, 200 years later a mysterious mechanical monster shows up in their space, and Shepard wants to know what it is, and if they should fear it.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright, this is a concept story of mine, it's an AU where after the first contact war Humans go into hiding. Also a 200-year gap between contact war and 'now' Enjoy.**

Garrus Vakarian stands tall on the bridge of his ship, The Avian, with his hands tucked neatly behind his back in a characteristically military stance as he thinks furiously, the situation for the Turian and his ship is dire. The Avian is beaten and bruised, and things are not looking bright as a Harbinger class capital ship has just this moment entered the system, looking for him.

Since the Reaper's discovery three years prior, Garrus has been a constant pain in their side, so much so that Harbinger, the most powerful of known Reapers, has frequently personally directed forces to ensure the Turian fails in stopping the mechanical abominations from their apocalyptic goals. Despite this direct intervention from Harbinger, be it a fool's luck or not, time after time the Turian managed to outwit and outfight the monstrosity; however, today is looking increasingly like the Turians last.

"There is one option." Liara T'soni's voice comes over the ship's intercom, "There is a relay not far, we can reach it before the Reaper."

Garrus knows his space charts, and this is the first time he has heard of a relay in this system, but before he can speak his thoughts an officer monitoring ship systems speaks, "With ME capacitors how they are, we will only get one more jump." Turning to the officer who just spoke he says. "If it leads away from here and that reaper then I'm taking it." He does not care that they will only get one jump on the ME capacitors because staying in this system is guaranteed to have his ship destroyed.

This is because Garrus knows that there is nowhere they can run to and hide within this system because the Reaper would catch them long before they arrived. "Chirper, get us there pronto." He commands the pilot of the ship.

"Course locked in, we will arrive 1 hour before the Reaper," Chirper tells him a moment after Garrus gave his order.

Just before they arrive at the Relay the comm system activates again, and Chirpers voice is heard, "Vakarian, to voyage the relay we need spectre authority."

The Turian's mandibles move slightly in an outward direction before he moves to arrive at the bridge, as he moves to the bridge he wonders why this relay requires Spectre Authority, and he has two theories. His first theory is that the relay is locked down still from the Rachni war or Krogan rebellions, the second is because there is something the council wants to hide behind it. Arriving on the bridge of the ship he looks at the Relay the Avian is positioned outside of, and it appears like every other relay he has ever seen, but something in his stomach tells him he should inquire about it. "Liara, why is this relay not on standard star charts?"

"Space behind the relay is not officially explored," Liara tells him, 'officially' here is the important word as it means the council have probably ventured the relay on the down low, "Also does the mention of Relay 314 stimulate any memories?."

"Relay 314." Garrus repeats, "Yes, it does, but we have no choice." After giving the codes required to pass through the relay, the Avian shoots off into space unknown to Garrus.

 **2 hours later**

The moment the Avian drops out of their Relay jump Garrus turns to his sensors expert, "Find us somewhere to hide." He instructs. Garrus believes the Reaper will shortly arrive in the system as it had the last, it has followed them through five system so far, so there is no reason to believe it wouldn't follow them here.

The sensors officer looks at her numerous screens and readings as the Avian scans the system, and with enough information gathered, she declares, "We're in a binary system, one gas giant, a rather large asteroid field and nothing else."

Liara must be listening as she speaks next, using the ship's intercom, "I am under the impression there should be two planets, not one."

The sensors expert studies her terminal some before saying, "It is an enormous asteroid field, could be the remains of a planet."

Garrus does not like what he hears, but he shows no emotion, he knows he can not outrun the Reaper with FTL tech when it shows, the mechanical monstrosities are too powerful for that, and his ship is too damaged to hide in a gas giant, similarly, the Asteroid field would be useful if stealth systems are working, which they are not. "Any systems in reach with FTL?"

The sensors expert blinks, "System LFE11498, sensors indicate one relay, detectable power levels suggest it is not activated, and another Gas giant."

Garrus mandibles flare outwards again, "Liara, is it relay 314?"

"Yes."

The Turian is not happy, he does not like being in unknown space, especially with a Reaper on his tail, and a mysterious species in front of him that his own people confronted 200 years ago. After the 'incident' at Relay 314 the Council tried to find the mysterious species, and bring peace between them and the Turians but these Humans had vanished, not a trace to be found. Shanxi, the planet his species invaded, was also bombed to smithereens where the human colony was located, presumably by the humans. "Tali, how long till we can use the relays again?"

Tali is a young Quarian who has worked with Garrus for the last 3 years, and she is the best engineer Garrus knows of. "Give me two days to strip down the conductors, another..."

Despite how much he wants to order Tali to 'work faster', Garrus knows the Quarian is probably already going flat out. If she says two days, that means two days. "Understood. Liara, meet me in my office, Chirper, get us into dark space, then we are going to turn off everything and vent our engines, see if that hides us when it arrives." By doing this Garrus hopes he will reduce the Avians Heat signature to the point it can not be detected. "And tell everyone to grab a blanket, things are going to get cold."

Five minutes later Liara walks into Garrus's office and stops in front of him, her arms crossed. "What does your network know?" Garrus asks her, assuming the Shadow Broker already knows where they are, and what happened here.

"Relay 314 200 years ago." Liara tells him before adding, "And a mysterious species known as Humans."

"What else?"

Liara unfolds her arms to slide a datapad across the table, while saying. "I know your military locked horns with these Humans, you took a black eye and then retreated due to intervention from the Council so peace talks could begin. I also know that is the last anyone has seen or heard from them. Every attempt to find them and rectify the hostilities failed, so the council hid everything, not wanting to panic the galaxy by telling them there is an unknown species on our doorstep who's first contact with a citadel species was less than desirable. "

Garrus blinked at the Asari, something the Turian knew Asari as a species understood to mean 'yes.' "The attempts to find them did not fail exactly."

"I would not consider an automated warning to 'leave' in system LFE11498 as finding them, we know not of their homeworld or systems of operation."

"No," Garrus admits. "But the destroyed buoys with automated peace messages that were dispatched soon after retreat tells us where they are operating." The council decided with the news of destroyed buoys that Humans are likely going to be hostile to any first contact party and closed off the relay to access their space. "Do you know anything else which could be of importance?"

"Read the datapad," Liara tells him, "It contains all I've been able to gather in short notice."

 **3 hours later**

It is estimated that if the Reaper followed them through the relay, then it is now that it would be emerging, despite only being one hour behind them in the previous system the speed one propagates a relay is directly correlated to mass, and a Harbinger Class Reaper is magnitudes heavier than The Avian.

Apart from a few portable lights, everything else in The Avian is shut down, and blowing out heavily Garrus can see his breath, with no heating turned on the ship is rapidly becoming dangerously cold, and while Turians can deal with the cold well, even he is starting to struggle. It amazes Garrus that the Asari crew, a species that come from warm garden worlds are still operating, Liara has taken to using her hard armour for its internal heaters. With all systems powered down Garrus does not have access to sensor information, so he can only hope that this suffering will be worth it.

 **Meanwhile**

Shepard watches the alien craft from the bridge of her ship, the Ulrich Von Liechtenstein, the Liechtenstein is a grade 5 stealth vessel designed for one purpose only, espionage, meaning the Liechtenstein could be hovering right above a city and not a single soul would notice with thanks to the numerous stealth systems in use. The need for such an advanced stealth vessel became apparent to the Systems Alliance after the First Contact War, where the upper echelons of the Systems Alliance agreed among themselves that they could not risk another first contact. In addition to their stealth ships a monumental effort went into hiding Human assets and keeping an eye open for the hostile race that attacked Shanxi, should they ever try to return.

"Scans complete, Commander." A synthetic voice called as a blue orb formed in the Ulrich Von Liechtenstein's bridges observation window. "I detect three distinct species aboard the vessel, one is Turian, the species which attacked Shanxi, and the other two are Asari and Quarian. I have no quarrel telling you this is a Council Vessel." After the first contact war buoys were detected from a so called council, broadcasting a wish to establish contact, but humanity, still reeling from the attack on Shanxi dismissed the buoys as a deceptive attempt to lure them out into the open, especially as their aggressors had a seat on this council. When a significant time had passed from the attack and stealth technology had come to a level deemed as 'acceptable' a single ship was dispatched to learn all they could of this council. From what the stealth ship learned of the council's actions over the years, the leaders of Humanity had no doubt that they made the right choice in hiding.

Looking at the obviously damaged ship Shepard gained an idea, "EDI," She speaks to the ships AI whose sole purpose is dedicated to keeping the Lichtenstein afloat and protecting her in battle with reaction times far beyond any biological entity, "How damaged is that ship? What threat does it pose?"

"From what I can deduce from comparisons of the aggressor's ships that attacked Shanxi, and this vessel, it is significantly damaged from battle, it poses no threat. Further, all systems are shut down, I do not believe they could power their weapons in time to counter an attack, that is if the weapons will power up at all."

Shepard leans forward in her captain's chair that is decidedly plain, and not something one would expect on one of Earth's most advanced stealth ships, "Will it fit in Hanger Bay 5?"

A few crew members on the bridge turn to give Shepard a look, they know they are not to reveal themselves at any costs, so what is their captain thinking? "Captain?" Asks EDI, a silent question asks what most of the bridge crew wanted to voice.

Shepard expected the questioning, in fact, she would have been disappointed if she wasn't questioned. "The ship sat at the Relay like a guard dog is something we don't want to play with, it has an armament capable of destroying our largest of warships, and I want to know why it has followed this ship here, and if we should expect any others. Prepare docking bay 5 for our new guests, and have a team ready to board."

 **The Avian**

Garrus shows no emotion as he watches the massive ship that could equal the Destiny Ascension in size extend black metallic wires towards his ship, the ship is unlike any he has ever seen, it is pitch black, the only reason he can see it is because of how it black's out the stars behind it. He knows when the black wires that are now clamped on his ship's hull pull tight that there is nothing he can do to prevent being pulled in.

Thanks to flushing the engines to hide their heat signature from the Reaper in pursuit they are simply too cold to start up in time to run away, and weapons require the engine to power them. Despite all this Garrus has still given Tali the order to start the engines, with the hopes that it will come useful later on. After a few moments of being pulled by the black wires, Garrus assumes he must have been absorbed by the black ship as everything out the observation window is black, with not a single star to be seen. Just as he is about to turn around and help his crew prepare the ship for whatever is about to happen a white light blinds Garrus, and when his eyes adjust to the light flooding in from the observation window, he feels his heart begin to race. An entire garrison of bi-pedal creatures is standing in formation outside his ship.

The creatures outside his ship are covered in the same black material as his captors ship so he can not see any features on them, only their outlines, but he assumes they are armed to the mandibles. In addition to the creatures there are two 300 metre long ships docked, or at least he thinks they are ships as their black nature does not let him see any noteworthy features, only their outlines.

"Garrus?" A female voice calls and the Turian turns to find Liara, she is holding his trusty old Krysae, a powerful sniper rifle in her hands and has all of her own weapons holstered. Accepting his rifle Garrus walks with Liara to The Avians airlock, where the majority of his crew have gathered, each holding whatever weapon they could get their hands on and are taking shelter behind impromptu barriers and cover. "If these are humans," Liara tells Garrus as they arrive at the airlock and take cover, "They have advanced significantly since the last contact with them."

Before Garrus could growl in reluctant agreement the Airlock hisses open, revealing the hanger bay they currently reside. With all guns raised and ready an easily detectable synthetic voice comes over the ship's intercom, "Garrus Vakarian, leave the safety of your ship and you and your crew will not be harmed."

Garrus wants to growl again, how had these aliens opened the airlock? That is only possible by using systems inside the ship, and who is that in the intercom? It appears to Garrus like his ship has been hacked. Turning to look at the airlocks camera Garrus says, "Who are you, and what do you want with my ship?" He assumes that whoever is in his ship's systems is also watching them as it is what he would do.

"All will be revealed soon; you may take two others, we are waiting."

Liara and Garrus look at each other, silently arguing with one another about what they should do before the Asari leaves her cover, saying "If they are willing to talk I'm willing to listen."

Garrus blinks as he stands from his cover, "Then you and Crux are with me. Ui you're in charge till I return, and someone purge the computers, I want them back under our control."

Before leaving the ship Garrus takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, and when ready a moment later he steps out the airlock and looks around, the black bi-pedal creatures are still stood surrounding their ship. Because of the severe dark nature of their armour, he can not easily distinguish one being from the next, nor their features, but no shots have been fired yet, meaning so far so good. As Garrus arrives at the bottom of the staircase, the creatures all move in unison to create a corridor between themselves, and at the end of the human corridor is another three of their captors, all wearing the black armour that is starting to make Garrus's head spin. It does not take long for the three figures to arrive, and when they do the one in the middle reaches up to their head and removes the black helmet, revealing a pale skinned creature that looks remarkably like an Asari. "What do you want with my ship?" Asks Garrus as he notes this captor of his is indeed a Human.

The human in the middle raises a hand somewhat, and a holographic display of the Reaper that is chasing Garrus down is shown. The Human says something in its language before a speaker somewhere on its black armour says, "What is this?" In perfect Galactic.

 **Alright chaps, there it is. If you're curious about the black armour research something called Ventablack, that is what I've based it on (Absorbs 99.96% of light to hit it. I've seen this stuff with my own eyes and it is something you have to see to believe)**

 **Note: Unless I get massive requests for me to continue, I'm not likely to do so. I just like making the occasional one off concept stories like this.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright, I know I said I didn't want to continue this, but I** **need** **to answer some of the people who left a review. (I answer all reviewers anyway)**

 **Guest(1)  
Ventablack is so 'black' you can not tell depth, features, or anything like that from looking at it. Imo if you want to look into a black hole this is the closest your gunna get. For a stealth ship, and infact any other ship, this could be incredibly useful. If an enemy can not see a feature of your vessel, they can not shoot it, or determine what you're packing!**

 **Soberan 123  
This is something which could happen in the right conditions, but how I've set up humans in this story, they are scared of aliens, and want anything but another first contact.**

 **Guest(2)  
Yes, Yes I do. Thanks for that correction!**

 **Orionastro  
Wehey! A dedicated reader of my work! I have a few things on the go so I'm not likely to update this much unless I get people demanding it. Cheers anyway for leaving a comment!**

 **Drkooljack  
Thanks for the comments. I chance to update every now and then, too many ideas for this floating in my head to ignore, but I do have other commitments at the moment.**

Shepard is not an alien, and her only interaction with alien's before today occurred when she was forced to scare off some Quarian scouts when they ventured just a little too close for comfort to a colony world. Despite her lack of interaction with aliens, she recognises the look in the eyes of the blue creature at seeing the holographic ship that is guarding the relay.

Garrus squints slightly, are these humans completely unaware of the war going on in the galaxy at the moment? He finds it hard to believe because as much as he hates to admit it, the Reapers are all knowing about the species that inhabit the galaxy, and in some twisted way, the artificial monstrosities could be seen as their galaxy's guiding figure, having provided them with a path of technology to develop. So Garrus is confident the Reapers know where they hide, and what the humans are capable of, so he is surprised the Reapers haven't appeared on their doorstep to 'reap' their species already.

Garrus studies the humans face before answering its question, and due to its uncanny similarities to an Asari he can not help but scrutinise it the same way he would an Asari, and unfortunately, it is proving hard to read. After a moment's silence, he says, "We call them Reapers, the entire galaxy are at war with them."

This news causes Shepard to raise a brow in curiosity, what could cause the entire galaxy to go to war with these 'Reapers', or is this just the council attacking another species they found, like humanity, but this species fought back instead of hiding? After thinking some, Shepard says, "Not the entire galaxy, but why are you at war? Did your council start it with an unprovoked attack?"

Garrus did not miss the reference to the short war waged against the humans, "Our species conflict was a misunderstanding."

"I fail to see how invading an unknown species colony after an unprovoked attack by yourselves can be written off as a misunderstanding. Now I asked a question."

It quickly dawns on Garrus that he should not linger on the Contact War, it is evident these humans blame them entirely for it, which from reading the files Liara gathered relating to the war, he can not blame them for. "To answer your question, they have a vendetta against intelligent biological life, and return to our galaxy to eradicate it every 50,000 years."

Shepard raises another brow as she tries to work out if the Turian is lying or not before nodding, "Very well. You have 12 Hours to leave human space." Without another word more Shepard turns on her heels and starts to walk back down her human walled corridor while putting her black helmet back on.

"Wait," Garrus shouts after her, "We do not know the boundaries of human space."

Shepard stops on the spot to reply, but she does not turn around to face the Turian. "Return through the relay you used to enter this space."

"My ship is damaged," Garrus protests, knowing Tali can not fix the ME capacitors in time. "We can not use a relay."

"That is not my problem. You have 12 hours, Spectre."

"And what of the Reaper?"

Shepard did not reply as she continues to leave the hanger, and after she left, the other humans start to file out of the hanger bay in a mannerly order. With a face bare of emotions, Garrus returns to the Avian and closes the airlock behind him. "Thoughts?" He asks Liara as the crew move out of their way, relieved that they are not going to have to fight for their ship.

"I think we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I do not question we are in danger if we do not do as the human demanded, but without ME capacitors, I do not see how we can do so. In my belief, we should set our ship towards Council space, and make repairs on the way, only to return and use the relay when Tali has finished repairs."

"And risk running through human territory trying to reach Council space?" Asks Garrus of her.

Liara blinks, "I do not believe the human wants to kill us; it would not have set us free if that was the case."

"Maybe not," The Turian replies, "A ship of this size is in all probability more than capable of incinerating us, why risk losing men by boarding if it could just blow us up?"

"For technology, and a council craft. Yes, they may have accessed our computers and downloaded our data banks, but that does not mean they have cracked the encryption on certain files. Taking this ship is the logical thing for the human to do if that is her goal."

"Hmm," Garrus thinks before asking the ship's intercom, "Tali, how are engines?"

"Barely holding... No you Boshtet! Leave it to me, or you will kill us all... Sorry, as I was saying, they are barely holding together. Core ship-wide systems will soon be powered and ready for use."

Hearing a loud 'clunk' Garrus's mandibles flare, arriving in an observation deck and looking out the window he finds that his ship is once more in space, the Human vessel is now nowhere to be seen. "Tali, prioritise sensors, I need to know where that Reaper is, and now."

 **15 mins later**

Garrus and a few others crowd around a terminal as sensor readings start to come in, and when the first readings are displayed everyone takes a collective sigh. The Reaper has gone in the completely wrong direction looking for them and does not show any signs of turning back yet for them, as their ship is probably still far too cold for the Reaper to detect.

"Chirper, I want you to set a course for Council space at the slowest speed you can, I want us as cold as possible for as long as possible, so we have longer to run." Tali's estimates say it will be 4 hours before the Reaper will detect their heat signature. "Meanwhile, I have a call to make, if anyone needs me I'm getting QEC online."

 **40 mins later**

Finding his way into the QEC Garrus takes a breath before selecting the Turian Councillor, but as power levels are so low the QEC can only handle voice at the moment. "Councillor Sparatus," Garrus starts after securing the room and connection from any possible snoops.

"Garrus Vakarian," The voice of Sparatus is heard, "I have little time, so make it quick,"

Garrus pauses slightly before continuing, "I've been in contact with the humans."

"Humans?" Asks the Councillor, there is then a small break before Sparatus continues, "The species from 314?"

"Yes." Confirms Garrus.

"Now this is unexpected, what do they have to say?"

"Unsurprisingly they blame us for the first contact war, other than this they requested information regarding the Reapers; I do not believe the humans are aware of them or their goals, sir."

"Have you been able to determine any of their ambitions?"

"Other than turning us away from their space, no sir."

There is a slight pause before the voice on the other end of the QEC asks, "Any other thoughts?"

"One." Says Garrus, "I'm forwarding you my location in case we go dark, Reaper on our tail. Also the ship we interacted with equals the destiny ascension in size, and in my opinion, the humans could be valuable allies in the war against the Reapers. It may be justifiable to introduce the Reapers in this space and..." Before Garrus could finish Tali bolted into the room and cut the connection, and Garrus turned to her with a very puzzled look.

"What did you say?" Demands Tali, she seems flustered.

"What is going on, Tali." Returns Garrus annoyed that she has interrupted this communication with the Councillor.

"Everything is wrong." Tali tells him, "The ship is too quiet, some ship systems too functional, the engines are not responsive enough despite their damage, and I just entered this room. Something here is very wrong." Tali should not have been able to enter the QEC when Garrus is talking to a Councillor.

Garrus mandibles start to move as he thinks, he knows the ship was hacked, but he had some software engineers purge the systems to fix this as soon as system returned to their control, "What are you thinking?"

Tali breathes out before saying, "I feel that this is all a complex simulation."

"Spirits." Replies Garrus as he goes over his last conversation with Sparatus, if the humans listened to that, or even if that was a human in disguise...

 **Meanwhile**

"Gigs up." Shepard sighs from her seat in front of many terminal panels watching the Turian vessel in her cargo hold; she could see through every camera onboard the ship, and listen from any microphone. She knows of everything said, especially the Turians conversation with 'Councillor Sparatus' who's real name is EDI . "Well done for fooling them for so long, EDI."

EDI has been in every system aboard the Avian, simulating its onboard systems as the crew did their things. It challenged her to her computational limits, but she did it. The trickiest part of the simulation was not having EDI replicate everything the ship would do, but rather fooling the crewmates inside the ship into thinking they were actually in free space. When Shepard pulled the Avian into their docking bay, they placed intricate panels over the Avians windows in utter darkness so that they could fool anyone looking out a window that they were in space and not the hanger bay. "Thank-you, commander."

"Patch me into their intercom, and lift the curtains, show them exactly where they are." This allows the Avian crew to see they are still in the Hangar bay.

"Done."

Before speaking to the crew of The Avian Shepard sighs, and then says, "Garrus Vakarian, I hereby take you and your crew into custody to stand trial for conspiring against humanity. Prepare to be boarded." This warning is all Garrus and crew get before the Avians Airlock opens and an entire garrison of humanity's finest warriors storm the ship.

As Shepard watches her armed crew move through the Turian ship on the monitors in front of her with a ruthless efficiency that the Avian crew can not combat she is thankful that her plan has worked. Shepard has learned a lot from listening to the crew of the Avian, about the 'Reapers' and other little things, like how their ships work, their command structure, and capabilities. As soon as her teams have the ship under their control, Shepard makes a note to have every man and woman who stormed the ship have access to extra rations and entertainment tokens, something she knows they will be highly thankful for.

 **cheers.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Damit you guys, I'm supposed to have other commitments here! Alright, I may continue this on and off... And it will probably be alot shorter than you are wanting. Also is it me or did FF not send out an update with my previous chapter, so go back and make sure you have read ch2.**

 **RR**

 **Argent.V2.36 I'm so so tempted. I have other commitments and will need to finish this before September, but I'll see what I can do...**

After nodding in recognition of her Senior staff Shepard sat at the head of the Lichtenstein's captains table, giving the signal that the others gathered around the luxurious oak table could sit. With everyone sitting and comfortable Shepard speaks, "EDI, you can begin."

Meanwhile, in a dark room deep within in the Lichtenstein Spectre Garrus Vakarian looks towards the only cold steel door in the room he is confined to as EDI's physical body enters through it, he is unnerved by the mechanical being but tells himself that in all likelihood that it is just a VI powering it. Garrus stays silent as it sits down in front of him, opposite the cold steel table he is sitting in front of. "Garrus Vakarian," EDI begins in Turian, ensuring that the Spectre has no issues understanding her, "Can you confirm?" Garrus stays silent, the only evidence he has heard the robot is how his mandibles ever so slightly move downwards, that is if you are human, if you are EDI, you notice how his pupils dilate, and his talons barely clench. "Excellent, I will be your legal advisor throughout these proceedings, are you aware of the charges made against yourself?"

More silence.

"Operative Vakarian, I can only assist in your legal woes if you co-operate."

There is a moment of tense silence before Garrus replies, "What are you doing with my crew?" When Garrus was dragged from The Avian, he had a black bag placed over his head.

"As we speak, they are being provided accommodation for their stay upon the Elric Von Lichtenstein, and it is in their best interests that you co-operate. Are you aware of the charges pressed against you?"

Garrus is furious with how events have played out, and his Turian training is starting to struggle to hold back that contempt. "Is that a threat against my crew?"

"No," EDI replies honestly, "If you comply, the less time they are likely to be held onboard this ship. If you do not comply, then it is probable they will be tried as co-conspirators against humanity, case by case. Depending on the complexity and amount of evidence gathered, this could take months or even years."

Garrus holds back a scowl as he asks, "What are you?" EDI's previous statement apparently forgotten as the Spectre tries to figure out his situation.

EDI puts down a few datapads her mechanical platform is holding in her arms to answer the man, signalling she is going to address that line of questioning. There is another reason why she has dropped the datapads, as while she would prefer to keep a hold of them she does it so her body is doing something, and seems more 'biological', which in her assessments help placate crewmen to her mechanical platform. EDI has been trying to work out what it means to look 'biological' and so far all she has sussed is she must constantly be doing something with her many servos, even when not required, such as small head movements and blinking one's eyes. "I am the Elrich Von Lichtenstein, but my artificial presence you are interacting with is known by the crew of this ship as EDI."

"You are an artificial intelligence?"

"Yes, and I am also your legal representative. Before we proceed any further, I would like to iterate what you are being charged with. Garrus Vakarian, of Council space, you are charged by Commander Shepard of the Elrich Von Lichtenstein of conspiring against Humanity, with the intent of causing mass grievance. I will now submit to you the evidence which you will face trial upon..." EDI started to arrange the previously dropped datapads and pushed them towards the Spectre, "The primary, and most damning evidence is..."

Garrus does not care what evidence the humans have gathered, "Who will be my judge?" He demands of EDI.

"You will be judged by what you would call a Virtual Intelligence, ensuring that there is no bias towards your species or you as an individual. If found guilty, your punishment will be decided by the most senior member of the Elrich Von Lichtenstein, which will be Commander Shepard. I should warn you, for your crimes, you are facing capital punishment."

Garrus then listens to the various pieces of evidence put to him with a stoic face, till EDI asks, "Is there anything you would like to tell me regarding this evidence?"

"Tell your commander before they take my head to go and visit Palaven, Thessia or Sur'Kesh, and only then when you know what is awaiting your precious homeworld, can you understand our situation. "

EDI nods, something she is sure the Turian does not understand to mean 'yes', but she does it to be 'biological', and ever so maybe out of habit. "I will inform her of your request. For now, I have compiled a datapad with streamlined information regarding human courts of law. I suggest you familiarise yourself with them and then we will continue 24 hours from now." EDI moves to stand, "You will now return to your crew; I advise you do not talk about your legal worries, or organise resistance. Your conversations will be actively listened to, and anything you say or do can and will be used against yourself."

Ten minutes later Garrus slumps down in a waiting room that many of his crew have taken to gather in. Some are supporting wounds from when they fought the Humans that boarded their ship, but these injuries seem to have been treated, Garrus would later find out that his ships doctor was allowed to treat them in The Avains medical facilities. Soon Liara, Tali, Crux and his ships Doctor have joined him, all of them being Garrus's most trusted aides. "They made us watch the interview." Liara tells him, "Pass me that data-pad, I may be able to find something in it."

Garrus gives Liara the datapad regarding human court proceedings while saying, "No, you're not going to find anything in it, with that evidence they will do what they please. Tali, what do you make of this ship?"

"I saw as little as you while being dragged here," Tali tells him, assuming that Garrus too had a black bag placed over his head before being dragged off The Avian. "But there is no escaping; there are no air ducts are leading in or out, no consoles, no nothing. Without my tools to pry the doors or an omni-tool we are stuck."

The only sign Garrus is frustrated with the situation is how his mandibles move upwards.

Meanwhile

"Do you think what the alien says is true?" Asks Doctor Chakwas, genuinely concerned that the galaxy is under seige.

Shepard looks around the room to see if any others want to reply, and EDI grabs her attention as her blue orb flashes slightly, "I believe so, Doctor. My analysis of the Turians body language suggests he believes what he is saying, and what documents I have been able to decipher from The Avian suggests the galaxy is at war with an entity known as 'Reapers'."

"Is there a documented cause of the war?" Asks Shepard.

The blue orb flashes, "No, I can only find references to a cycle the Reapers obey."

Shepard breathes in and out as she taps her fingers on the wooden table in front of her, a classic sign that her mind is thinking. Her senior staff are silent till she speaks again, knowing from the action that their superior officer is thinking. Eventually, Shepard speaks, "I can not report back to Earth with rumours and the word of one Turian, so this is what I propose. The SR1 and two will remain here to continue our mission," Said mission being to keep an eye on the fringes of human space and report any incursions into their space, "While the Lichtenstein verifies the threat of the Reapers." This will be the first time any human ship has entered Council space in 100 years, as the upper echelons decided they did not want to risk having a human ship found in council space, the consequences of which could be dire.

However, Captains of the most advanced stealth vessels do have the authority to enter Council space if required, but so far no captain has exercised this as they would have to validate their reasoning to Earth, and very few excuses would appease Earths leaders. Entering without a valid reason could result in various punishments, from capital to being stripped of command. Before continuing, Shepard looks to her left wrist and notes the time on an ancient analogue watch that has been passed down her family for generations; she notices it is nearly lunch time, not that this matters. "Adams, how are stealth systems?"

The ageing Engineer leans forward in his chair and rests his arms on the oak table, a posture unfitting of an Alliance officer, but Shepard allows it, she prefers her crew to be obedient and loyal, not robots who are capable of holding a perfect stance for hours on end. "All systems are raring to go," Adams tells her with confidence. "We could sail pass that ship on the relay within a half metre, and if its like our captives ship it wouldn't be any the wiser."

"Talking of that ship, and our captives ships, what are your opinions?"

Adams starts with their captives ship, after all, he has been studying it since it entered alliance space. "From what I can determine of the Turian's ship it has a rudimentary stealth system based on hiding a heat signature, it equals the capabilities of our Gen 1 Stealth class. Its weapons though," The engineer whistles in awe, "They should be able to pack a punch alright. Armour is similar to our own as is shielding, engines though we outclass, this is to be expected considering our power source." The Engineer takes a sip of water before speaking his thoughts on the Reaper, "This other ship though is a mysterious one, sensors can't penetrate its hull, although energy readings suggest a large powerplant is hiding within. Weapons look to be a mix of energy based and kenetic, but I can only see the muzzle. In short, I think it's a marvel, and I want on it."

"Understood, then I want everyone capable studying that Reaper, and our captives vessel."

Meanwhile

Garrus looks up as the door to their 'prison compound' opens and numerous black troops march in, their numbers far too great for resistance to be mounted against them. With enough soldiers in the room, another figure in black walks in before removing its helmet, revealing a young looking man with a darker shade of skin than the other human Garrus talked to. With all eyes on the new maskless human the figure shouts, "Lunch time. I want an orderly line 2 wide following me." The man watched as nothing happens, before shouting, "Snap to it!"

Not wanting to push their human captors the Avian crew shortly line up, with the more senior crew at the front of the line. With a line formed the man puts his black-hole of a helmet back on and leads the aliens through the Lichtenstein and to a large room filled with hundreds upon hundreds of humans, all out of armour and sitting at clinical stainless steel tables. The humans are all laughing, talking, eating, or a mixture of all three, and it is evident to Garrus that this is a military canteen as everyone is dressed in uniform and it reminds him a lot of Turian Bootcamp. The group's entry must have startled the humans, as they quickly turn silent. The man in black armour quips something to the room, causing conversations to start back up again and then he leads Garrus's people to the canteens far wall where they are instructed to pick up plates and are served with what could be best described as slop by a large unsightly alien.

Next, they are guided to a table, where three humans are sat at the top, they are in discussion amongst themselves, and do not seem overly concerned with the aliens. Not wanting his crew to interact with them, Garrus instructs, Liara and Tali to sit by himself next to the aliens, as the table is unlikely to be large enough for his crew as it is.

As they sit down in silence, Garrus notices the humans are eating the same slop they are, and thinks to himself that at least they are being treated with some respect, in that they are not giving them slop on purpose.

As Liara sits next to him he asks her, "Who do you think this will make sick, me or you?"

Liara sniffs the food before taking a small sample of whatever it is, and then she says, "Most definitely you." As she digs in.

Garrus stares at his food for a small moment before standing and approaching the man who led them here, or he thinks he is, the black armour makes it hard to distinguish who is who. Said man now has his arms crossed, not that Garrus could tell due to the nature of the armour. "This food will kill my people!" He complains. "If you want live prisoners to interrogate you're going to have to feed us food from our ship."

The black-clad man gestures to the few crew who are eating, notably the Asari. "They seem fine with it."

"Because they share your amino acid biology, Turians and Quarians need Dextro."

The man seems to think on it for a second before raising a hand to his helmet, and he stays in this stance for a minute before saying, "Sit down, the captain has granted your request."

Getting back to the table Garrus notices one of the three humans is starring at him, the human is huge around the shoulders, and its arms are incredibly muscular. "See something?" Garrus asks and is surprised when it speaks in alien and a galactic response comes from a synthetic voice, originating from a bracelet on the man's arm.

"Humanity's bogey man."

"And what is that?" Snaps Garrus. The spectre notices that there is no audible translation for Human before it replies, again in its own language. Garrus wonders if the man has some sort of unseen implant in its ear to hear the translation of what he has said. Little does he know humanity are more integrated with AI then what shows on the surface.

"Well, your people come from nowhere, invade a colony and runaway. When kids misbehave we tell them you come for them unless they behave."

/.../

"You!" Says a figure dressed in black barely moments after Garrus and his team return to their compound from dinner, and Garrus turns slowly on the spot to face the figure approaching, "You've got a visit with the captain."

Garrus shows no surprise or emotion on his battle scarred face before being escorted through the ship by a small platoon of humans, and arriving at a wooden door this platoon turns into two, as the majority of the guard stays outside, ready to enter and defend their captain. Anyone on the Lichtenstien would die for their captain, as she is the only one who knows the location of Earth and her five colonies, and they know if she dies, then the Lichtenstein and her crew will never find home amidst the billions of stars in the Milkyway. It may seem absurd that only one person out of the 10 thousand man crew knows Earths co-ordinates, but everyone agreed with it to defend their homeworld. There are rumours, however, that an unknown crewmember knows the co-ordinates to a 'verification' post, where after verification they are given Earths co-ordinates, but for the most part, people dismiss this as mere rumour.

"Enter." Demands the voice of the one who came to collect him, and Garrus does as asked, to find a rather luxurious studio apartment behind the wooden door. At one side of the room, there is a large bed, neatly made and facing out a large window into the abyss of space. Along the far wall of the studio, there is a large glass desk, and a glass cabinet filled with some black armour and what he guesses is weapons, their colour makes it hard to figure out their nature. Above the glass desk is what he guesses are ship models mounted to the wall, and he recognises the shape of primitive rockets on a few of the models. Sat in front of this desk is the human he first interacted with. "Come in." The person sitting speaks before standing from her leather chair and approaching a bookcase with a few golden beverages. The human pours two glasses and passes one to the stoic faced Spectre.

Garrus looks around with his eyes as he reluctantly accepts the drink, in the little time he has been in the room he has come up with no less than 4 plans to subdue the captain and her two guards in the room. "Most curious," The human says as she takes a seat on a sofa along the near wall of her apartment. On the sofa there is a four-legged Varren like Creature Garrus missed when he first looked around the room, and the Captain seems to be friendly enough with it that she can sit right next to it.

"What?" Asks Garrus as he moves to stand opposite the sitting human and its creature, the standing allows him to react quicker if needed.

"Your own species and mine are not so different after all;" Shepard says to him as she studies his face, "I can see the contempt for my crew and me in your eyes, it is as clear as daylight."

"Would you not have contempt for your captors?"

"Who wouldn't?" Asks Shepard in return, before adding, "But allowing your hatred for me to cloud your judgement isn't going to do you, or me any favours. Why do you think I captured your vessel, before you spoke with your supposed Councillor?"

Garrus is silent for a moment, considering his response before saying, "Does it matter?"

"No." Shepard tells him honestly, "Not for you. From my point of view though I have an excellent reason. You were followed here by what I can only assume to be a hostile warship, a big one at that, and had I not intervened then there is a good chance you were about to drag it to human space, that I will not allow."

"It will never have found us; our heat signature was too low."

Shepard raises a brow, did they really think that looking for a heat signature is the only way to find a ship in space? How primitive thinking. "Are you implying that this ship can only detect your heat signature?"

"Are you implying you can detect more than heat?" Garrus sees the look on the humans face an Asari gives when surprised.

"For a galaxy-spanning species, you certainly lack advancement. Now, you're a man of service so let's quit beating around the bush, as it currently stands you are going to be trialled for conspiring against humanity, and with the evidence stacked against you and your crew, more than a few of your necks are going to get a few inches longer."

"I have been told."

"Good." Shepard sips her drink, "So you know the gravity of your situation. Now, as Captain, I can commute these sentence's to servitude."

Garrus detects the request that is coming, "Why not freedom? We would rather die than be whipped as slaves."

Shepard sips her drink again before saying, "Why? Simply put, you want to drag your Reapers into a war with humans, and you know too much about us. As for being slaves, you will be paid a wage depending on your occupation, and enjoy the rights of most humans. The only condition is you never contact the rest of the galaxy, or leave human space."

While Garrus would prefer freedom, that does sound better then death, "In exchange for?"

"You claim your Reapers are waging war on the galaxy, with a vendetta for biological life. If this is true, my people need to know, and our drums of war will need to beat louder than ever. I need from you and your crew your knowledge of your enemies, and your galaxy as I probe this threat."

Garrus wants to make a remark about why he should help humans, but he holds his tongue for now as he considers the request. If he spends time with the humans, and helps them, then maybe he could sway them into fighting the reapers, or find a way to escape this damned ship. "Why don't you join our war? With your forces and ours combined, we could crush the Reapers." This is hoping to the extreme on the Turians part; he does not know the human's capabilities or their numbers, and the Reapers are ploughing through Turian fleets like they aren't even there.

"Let me tell you why," Shepard says as she takes another sip of some rather pricey whisky, "My species can be very paranoid, and 200 years ago we feared that aliens would be hostile. Now imagine what my species thought when the first contact we ever had with aliens was brutally hostile, with a colony world invaded for no apparent reason? You made no attempts at contact, no nothing. You declared war on us for who knows what reason. After that set of events, my species went into hiding, and we have become good at it. Your Reapers, if they can not detect a ship without a heat signature, will never find Earth. So tell me, Vakarian, why should we risk our entire species for ones that attacked us with undue cause if these Reapers will never find us?"

"We tried to make reparations for that." Garrus hits back, "But you destroyed our drones without a second thought."

"Drones from a council your species have a seat on." Reminds Shepard, "For all we knew, your council was a trap. Now you have a lot to mull over, we leave for Council space at 0800 tomorrow, and I hope you accept my offer."

Garrus puts the drink given to him down on the coffee table in front of Shepards Sofa, "Do not get your hopes up, Captain."

"I would be a fool if I did. Now go see your crew, I suspect you have a lot to talk about."

After Garrus has left the room Shepard reaches forward and picks up the untouched whisky; she will be damned if she lets the vintage drink go undrunk.

/.../

0800

Shepard looks out of the bridges observation window before turning to regard the alien spectre momentarily. "Joker," She then calls, "Is the link established?"

A frail appearing man located at numerous terminals just in front of the captain that Garrus recognises from the canteen the other day touches a few of the terminals controls before saying, "Just ready for the word."

"Excellent," Shepard says, "Stealth systems?"

As the stealth systems are so advanced there are various crew who man the control stations, 'Heat signatures hidden, Gravitational lensing active, Induced gravity well masked, Electromagnetic Emissions dampened'. When combined, all these systems make the ship neigh on invisible, and the super advanced 'gravitational lensing' systems use Eeezo to manipulate gravity and bend light around the ship, making it truly invisible in the visible spectrum when the ship is further than 10,000km away. The downside to this system is that it also blinds the Lichtenstein in the visible spectrum, so the Lichtenstein relies on a tiny visible drone that is a few meters wide to hover off the ship and to be its eyes when using this stealth system. This 'drone' system is not ideal, but till a new solution is proposed, it is what they have to work with.

"So in short," Joker interrupts after the last crewman reported in regarding stealth systems, "The only way they will detect us is if we all start singing the Russian National Anthem."

Shepard ignores the cheeky pilot's comment, "Cyber warfare?"

EDI replies, "Shepard, I am almost offended you could believe I am not ready."

"Just making sure, EDI. Weapons and shields?"

"Good to go."

Shepard leans forward as people wait for her to give the word, and then after a moment to ask herself if she is really doing this she says, "Take us to Palavern, Joker." She can feel the hairs on her neck and arms stand as she says this.

Garrus was about to ask how they were going to get around the Reaper on the Realy in this system, but he holds his tongue as he feels the undeniable static produced by a mass relay. "Jumping in 3... 2... 1..." Joker announces, and a second after saying '1' the Lichtenstein is thrown into a Mass Relay Jump, astonishing Garrus.

"How?" Garrus asks, "We were not near a relay?"

Shepard turns to Garrus, "This ship is a relay."

For possibly the first time in his life, Garrus is dumbfounded. With this technology, the Galaxy needs Humans in the war against the Reapers.

 **While I've made the humans look powerful here, they aren't going to be the 'Humanity F yeah' you are probably expecting. They are going to be advanced in some areas, e.g stealth, and cave men in others. Also before I get the comment, yes I know what gravitational lensing is and isn't, I just couldn't think of a better name at the time of writing this for the stealth system.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Alright chaps, I've pushed this out on a whim to answer a few questions / points brought up in your reviews.**

 **RR**

 **OrionAstro, If one of your colonies is attacked by unknown aliens, with unknown intent, when you are only just starting to explore space and colonise new worlds then it is my belief you would enter Total War Economy. I explore this idea this chapter.**

 **Blazeknight26 Happy to oblige.**

 **Sien. Yes, you are right. Humanity would be beyond stupid to think they are safe from the Reapers, but considering they have only just found out about the reapers they have alot to learn about them. As for the Relays, we will see that Humanity has prodded and poked them enough to know how to control one, and even build a ship around one.**

 **As for the Reapers patience... this is something which they will need to use sooner or later.**

 **sigi87. By being less advanced in other areas I don't mean technologically but rather socially. So an example I'm thinking of is Humanity in this story will still use cash when planetside, something most 'experts' think will be phased out in the future. As for the feel of the race, I want them to feel very young yet heavily scarred and influenced from the contact war.**

 **/.../**

With the ship now heading towards the Turian homeworld with no way to back out, Shepard stands from her captain's chair and turns to Garrus, "It will take us the better part of two days to arrive." She tells him. "So get acquainted with the ship." Two days? Garrus silently asks himself, impressed with the feat, the same trip would take The Avian a better part of a week and the Avian is one of the faster ships in the Turians navy. "EDI will tell you anything you want to know within reason."

Garrus was escorted back to his crew and sat down next to his senior staff, his behind had only just touched the chair when a figure in black walked in, but instead of the typical black armour that confuses the eyes, this is a 'soft' black, meaning depth can be seen. "What is it with these bosh'tet's and black?" Asks Tali quietly as they watch the man walk in, he carries the aurora of a military man with him. Two men who follow behind him and are similarly dressed, they each carry a sizeable cardboard box in their hands.

"Alright," Growls the man who entered the room first, "Captain says you lot are going to be with us for a while..." If these humans do share facial expressions with Asari, then Garrus guesses that this chap is not so happy about this small fact. "So, she has authorised each of you to own a smart bracelet. On this ship, this bracelet will be your lifeline. It will allow you to interact with ship systems, pay for your grub, access to your room and begrudgingly to me and the rest of the human crew, allow you access to entertainment systems. I will warn you once and once only. Do not lose it."

As the man spoke, the two subordinates carrying the boxes dropped their burdens on an abandoned table and turned to leave. As the human leader of the three men leaves Garrus approaches the boxes, and inside he finds dozens of smaller white boxes, each labelled with a name of one of his crew in Galactic. Pulling out the smaller boxes he gives the bracelets to their new owners and then joins his senior staff once more when his crew have their bracelets. "So," Tali starts to speak as she studies the small device. It has a black, no surprise there, leather like yet highly stretchy strap, and a black metal body, two centimetres wide, by four long. "Think this is a way of spying on us?" Asks Tali of the group, she is very suspicious of the device.

Liara clenches her fists slightly as she inspects her own bracelet, it is identical in every way to Tali's, and everyone else's. "No, I do not think they need these to spy on us."

"I hate to agree." Grumbles Garrus, "That AI, EDI, is probably everywhere on this ship."

With a sad sigh Liara puts the bracelet on her left wrist, and the moment it settles around her limb Liara feels the bracelet pinch her, as if testing her skin. A hand immediately moves to the bracelet to remove it, but the contact must have activated something as a small holographic display projects itself from the device. "Greetings, Liara T'soni." The display reads in galactic, "I am EDI." Liara had watched Garrus's interview; she knows EDI is the ships AI. "The pinch you felt earlier sampled your DNA, so now this bracelet is coded to operate with only your DNA. You can interact with me anytime via this bracelet, unlike the Human crew, however, you will need to ask questions through verbal or physical input."

This statement raises a question in Liara's mind, so she asks, "Unlike the Human crew?"

"All humans aboard the Lichtenstein are fitted with personal interfaces; they can interact with me by thought alone. While many still wear the bracelet as a time keeping device, it is, for the most part, rudimentary."

This statement alone opens up a whole new can of worms, such as 'what does this allow humans to do'? Is it just a way to ask EDI questions, or can they communicate with other humans via this system? Liara knows she will need to study it. "Am I right in believing the Avian crew are now allowed to roam this ship?" Liara asks aloud.

"Your beliefs are correct. Is there anywhere I can guide you to?"

Liara looks to Garrus and Tali, this is good news. "Is there a library?"

/.../

Liara has spent hours in the Lichtensteins extensive library, its contents most fascinating. The first thing she looked up when she arrived is information regarding the ship they are on, and while a lot of the information she wished to know is classified, she does know what it looks like and the 'floor plan'. Essentially the Lichtenstein is a giant cylinder in appearance. It does not look 'cool' as some may expect, but when talking with Tali, the Quarian declared the shape makes sense because, in theory, it would make for easier, and therefore faster construction.

"So," Garrus slumps down next to the Asari, "Find anything interesting."

"Quite," Liara tells him, "For example, after the Turian offensive at relay 314 and 'Shanxi', the colony your people invaded, the humans believed war had been declared upon them hostile ET's. Unsurprisingly fearing for their very existence their military had massive public support for their war machine, causing significant changes to their culture and way of living. Today 35% of their GDP goes directly into their military, 200 years ago this was 3%. The Asari invested 0.5% pre-reapers, and your Government invested 2%. These people have been preparing for total war with Turians for the last 200 years."

"Should have a sizeable fleet then." Concludes Garrus with a bit of hope in his voice.

"Yes." Liara agrees, "Although the numbers are hard to settle on, with too much information being restricted to get a real number. Although, from what I have managed to gleam I estimate somewhere north of 5,000 vessels, with a minimum of 1000 being dedicated to battle."

Garrus scratches his jaw, "Thought with a budget of 35% it would be higher than that." He then says somewhat disappointed.

"Humans do not do 'little'. This ship, for example, despite its mighty size is not their biggest, that title belongs to something called 'The AWV Kraken' a monster which is almost 16km long and pure war machine. The most abundant of human warships is 4km in length." Humanity after the contact war had taken the idea that if you're going to wield a stick, wield a big one that hits hard.

This is somewhat good news, should Garrus get the Humans into the war, then they will be ready to give the Reapers a hard-hitting surprise. "Spirits, what did we awaken 200 years ago?" The largest of Turian Dreadnoughts are 1.6km long, and they only had 37 before the Reapers hit.

EDI's voice replies, "In the words of Isoroku Yamamoto, 'A sleeping giant' that has been filled with a terrible resolve. Garrus Vakarian, your immediate presence is required on deck 28, please follow my directions to the destination."

Garrus turns from Liara to find out what he is needed for on deck 28, but he stops mid-stride and says, "Keep up the good work, Liara."

Arriving where he is required Garrus finds that Tali has been apprehended by a few of the human soldiers in their black armour, and the Commander is waiting for him with a stoic face. "Why is she sneaking into engineering?" She asks Garrus bluntly when he is but a few paces from her.

Garrus looks to Tali who is standing between two of the large burly humans; she looks tiny when compared to them. "I ordered her to find out what she can about this ship." Garrus didn't lie to the Captain, he knew that bastard AI of theirs would tell on him instantly.

"I see." The captain says before passing the Spectre a bucket and brush. "There are 513 toilets on this ship. Get cleaning." Without a single word more the captain turns on her heels and walks away.

/.../

Garrus slumps down at the end of the day, exhausted from the humiliating job of cleaning toilets. He still has many to do. "Please tell me you learned something from this?" He asks Tali, who for whatever reason was spared the horrid job.

"Sorry." The Quarian replies sheepishly, "Barely snuck past the first set of restricted doors before I got slammed into by those brutish thugs in black."

"Hmm," Growls the spectre before turning to Liara, "Find anything else out?"

"Plenty, but none that will be of interest to you."

"Try me."

"Their culture..." The Asari could read from the Turians face he is not interested, "Thought so. Most data which could help our situation is classified I am afraid."

The Spectre sighs and then says, "Escaping this ship is going to be a lot harder than I ever imagined."

Relay 078, Palavern.

"Relay jump complete in 5...4...3...2...1, states Joker and a half second after announcing '1' there is an almighty flash on the view screen as they drop out of the Relay Highway. Immediately after completing the Jump Shepard says, "Stealth Systems?"

With all Stealth Systems green, Shepard then says, "EDI, Display a 3d overview of this system, highlight any ships, planets, satellites and anything else of interest."

It takes EDI a couple of seconds to generate the image, and the picture generates a small panic in Garrus, two Capital class Reapers are approaching their position. "Jeff, move us 100,000km away from the Relay, port side."

The pilot does as asked, and soon there is a sizeable gap between the Lichtenstein and the Relay. The Reapers do not change course to intercept them. "Excellent, we are still undetected. Take us to 1.5 AU of Palavern, keep us a minimum of 100,000km away from any other ship."

Usually, this would be an incredibly easy job, but with the concentration of Reapers in the system, it may be harder to do than one would think, however, Joker is, according to himself, 'the best god dam pilot in the Alliance' and gets the ship in position without issues.

"EDI put the Turian homeworld on screen." It takes a second, but the AI does as asked.

"Great Scott!" An officer says as the image appears on the screen, "Half that entire continent looks like it's one massive fire."

"This is all the Reapers work," Garrus says as he faces the view screen with an impressively stoic face, if this was Earth Shepard does not believe she would have been able to stand there like this Turian is. "And they will come for your home world eventually. If we knew about you, then they certainly do now."

The bridge crew watch the view screen for a moment before a comms expert says, "Commander, I'm picking up chatter about a Reaper Task Force heading towards the citadel."

"Spirits," Garrus says before Shepard can say anything, "They are going for our leaders."

"EDI, how far is the Citadel from here?"

"12 Hours."

Shepard nods and then says, "Then time to find out how these Reapers fight their battles. Get us there."

/.../

"Dropping out of Relay Transit in 3...2...1... Shit! Making emergency manoeuvres..." On the view screen, there is a massive ship that equals the Lichtenstein in size a few km off their bow. The ship is apparently damaged and is venting its atmosphere and an assortment of other chemicals from numerous hull breaches. Shepard is amazed the vessel is holding together at all.

As Jeff makes sure they do not collide with the huge ship Shepard turns to another officer on the bridge, "Sherman, Send that ship to the Dark Zone."

/.../

30 seconds ago, Destiny Ascension.

"Matriarch, I'm getting a huge reading from the relay, something huge is about to emerge."

Matriarch Lidanya walks quickly up to the sensor expert's console and takes a quick look at the readings, "Goddess, with energy readings like this it must be huge, Dgoria, I want..."

The Ascensions bridge crew grow silent as a huge 10km long black cylinder drops out of the relay, directly in front of them, its colour makes it impossible to miss due to the Nebula they are in having a remarkable pinkish colour, creating a startling contrast between the ship and its background.

"I don't care who that is," Lidanya says as her pilot frantically moves the beaten Ascension out of the unknown crafts way, "Get us through the relay, and now." The Ascension couldn't even fight a shuttle firing a pop gun right now, nevermind what this thing is, and as engines are on the verge of kicking the bucket up Lidanya does not want to stop in fear they will fail to get them moving again.

"Matriarch..." An Asari says from behind her, "We are about to enter Relay Transit."

The Matriarch feels a familiar static fill the air that is usually associated with Mass Relays "At this distance from the Relay? Impossible."

"It's that black... ship." The officer replies, just as they are thrown into a jump they did not initiate.

Lidanya grinds her teeth in pure frustration before asking her officer, "Then where in the aether is it sending us?"

"If these readings are correct, into unknown space."

/.../

Elrich Von Lichtenstein

The advantage of your entire ship being built around a relay is that you can use the Relay at the core of your vessel to your advantage. So if a ship gets too close like the Ascension, you can shoot it off to a destination of your choice before it ever hits. The relay can also be used on enemies, just ram your ship through their lines and shoot off any ship in proximity to where ever you fancy. It's genius, really. But the biggest advantage is the energy the relay produces, which can be tapped into to power shields, weapons, stealth systems, you name it the relay can power it.

"Alright EDI, what else is going on in this system?"

EDI displays a 3d construct of this system, much like she had in Turian space. "The Citadel forces and the Reapers are engaged in heavy combat above the citadel. Readings suggest it will be a swift Reaper victory."

"Then get us in range and have the cameras rolling, I want something for the boys back home to study."

"What of that ship you sent to spirits know where?" Asks Garrus, concern laced in his voice.

Shepard turns to face the Turian, because that ship most certainly saw them, she can not leave it to do as it pleases. "I will destroy it..."

"Destroy it?" Garrus repeats, his mandibles wide off his face showing his horror, "If you do that then my people are as good as dead, please, you can not do this."

Shepard takes a moment to look at the Turian, and she notices more subtle signs the Turian is horrified with the idea of destroying the ship, "And why is that? What makes this ship so important?"

Garrus points to the 3d image of the battle. "The Ascension would never abandon a fight unless it is carrying people of significant importance."

This statement has Shepard intrigued, "These people being?"

"If it's running from battle, it's because the Councillors are on board. If we lose them, it will be chaos as we try to establish new leaders."

Shepard knows about the Councillors, or more importantly what role they play. "How interesting, but I will not make any promises. For now, we will watch the battle unfold, and then deal with these old leaders of yours."

3 days later

Lidanya rubs her brow with a hand covered in oil, they have just dropped out of relay transit 2 hours ago and they are now deep in unknown space, with a barely functioning ship. On their voyage, engines failed completely, and the hull buckled some, meaning that the Ascension is as good as dead. "Did that do it?" She asks into her comms.

"That's a negative."

Lidanya almost loses her calm and stops herself just inches from hitting the blasted machine that is responsible for maintaining the ships inner atmosphere with a biotically reinforced punch. If the machine is not repaired soon, then the air they breathe will kill them. "Matriarch, we have a chemical fire on level 18."

The Asari rests her head on a cold work surface, the fire will only burn through oxygen they can not spare. "Send whatever fire suppression crew is available." This day could only get any worse if a Reaper decides to pop out of the relay any moment now, not that she would know if it's coming as most sensors are down.

Meanwhile

The Lichtenstein has only dropped out of the relay 15 minutes ago, and so far they have just been watching the battered ship Garrus called Destiny Ascension float in space, it is evident to anyone who looks upon it that the ship is a write-off. Large holes cover its hull from where Reaper rounds slammed the ship, the atmosphere is still venting, a fire can be seen through some of the holes and power is out on many decks. "EDI, get in their systems, are the VIP's on board?"

EDI's blue orb flashes to signal to her biological crew that she is working, and registered the command. After a considerable while to break into the ship's systems she says, "I can detect the presence of the Asari and Salarian Councillors."

"Alright," Shepard stands from her chair, "I'm going to make a call."

With a nod the XO took command of the bridge, allowing Shepard to enter the communications room. After flicking through a few contacts she stops on an Admiral Hackett. While there may be better admirals to talk to, with more connections to the top leadership of humanity, she chose Hackett because she knows he listens to what people have to say, and it helps matters that she reports directly to him. After pressing the button to connect the call it is a solid 5 minutes before there is an answer, "Commander Shepard," A wise sounding voice says, there is no video. "I have heard troubling reports."

"They would be right then, Sir. I've been investigating a potential threat to Humanity in Council space. An extinction level threat."

There is a slight delay as the powerful computers required to work the QEC try to decode the man's response.

"Shepard, I hope you have evidence for this or your head will be on the chopping block. Not even I can save you from that."

"I have enough evidence, Sir."

"Enough to mobilise the fleets?"

"Enough to unleash the Kraken. I also have the Councils prized Councillors sitting in my crosshairs in the Dark Zone. Their ship is almost destroyed from an entity called 'Reapers'."

"Then we have an incredible opportunity in front of us. For now, I want you to sit tight, I'll have some suits sent to you to establish communications."

"Understood, Sir."

"In other news, Commander, what is this I hear about you now having alien crew members?"

"Ah," Shepard says before adding, "It is an experiment of Elon's that I approved of, he wants to study them, and he wants to do it when they are themselves, or at least as much as they can be themselves considering their predicament. I'll make sure you get his reports."

"Well," Hackett starts to reply, "I think it is a good idea to find out more about our enemy. I look forward to musing those reports. Is there anything else you would like to relate to me, Commander?"

"No sir."

Arriving back on the bridge Shepard says, "We have orders from Hackett, we will have emissaries arriving shortly."

EDI's blue orb forms and flashes before her voice can be heard saying, "Shepard, I estimate the ambassadors will arrive no sooner than 151 hours from now. In 118 hours I suspect the Ascension crew will run out of breathable air. They are failing to repair the atmospheric processor which has taken a heavy beating during their confrontation with the Reapers."

Shepard sighs heavily; she can not let the Council members sub come if diplomats are on the way. "Drop stealth systems and open hailing frequencies, and EDI, whats the name of this ship's captain?"

/.../

"Matriarch, that ship is back," Comes a voice over the ships intercom system.

The Matriarch stands from her kneeled down position over a part of the atmosphere processor and makes her way towards the bridge, which is a considerable walk. She will have to grab a lift somewhere to arrive promptly. "How long till it arrives?"

"It just appeared off our bow; it's here already. Also, they are hailing us."

"Wait till I arrive on the bridge."

After 20 minutes the Matriarch arrives on the bridge, she notices the Asari Councillor is there but she ignores her for now, this new ship requires her full attention. "Are they still hailing?"

"Yes, Matriarch."

"Then let us find out who this ship belongs to. Let's take the call."

Within seconds of accepting the call that is audio only a voice says "Matriarch Lidanya, I am under the impression you need assistance." The voice sounds somewhat processed as if it has been through a translator

"Who are you?" The Matriarch asks. "Why did you send us here?"

"I am Commander Shepard of the AWV Elrich Von Lichtenstein. I sent you here because you have seen my vessel."

The Matriarch is surprised by the completely alien name, but she does not let it show on her face. "AWV? I am unaware of such an acronym."

"Alliance War Vessel." There are many other titles in the navy, such as ALV, Alliance Logistics Vessel, and ASV, Alliance Support Vessel.

"Who forms your alliance?"

"People your council once wronged. Do you require assistance?"

Tevos gestures for the communication to be muted before turning to Matriarch Lidanya, "I believe I know who these are." The Councillor, of course, is aware of the Relay 314 incident as the aliens the Turians attacked could be a galactic threat. "Prepare the first contact package, and I'll take this from here." With a confirmation blink to the Asari manning communication systems Tevos speaks again. "Greetings Commander Shepard. I am Councilor Tevos of the Citadel Council, would I be right in assuming that this is a first contact situation?"

"My species first contact with your council involved your people invading one of our colonies. I know who you are."

Tevos leaves a small pause before replying, so she can think, and with a plan to go forward she says, "I am curious Commander, why are you offering assistance? You have sent us to this dark corner of space for a reason, is it to talk?"

"Potentially."

/.../

 **Cheers for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Blazeknight26  
** Well, thankyou. But this is a good question. Humanity is not a fan of the Council, but are they wanting to send a species to extinction? But yes, things have gotten, let's say interesting.

 **Guest(1)  
** You must remember humanity here is very militaristic. Shepard is on a military vessel. Also, I can not spend too much time on this story, (I'd love to, but life commitments demand I finish it before September) So I'm focussing on story.

Bluemarlin **.  
** Cheers! Enjoy! 

CReaper210  
The problem is, I love the ME universe, and making a humanity F! Yeah story changes things up a lot. Yes, I like it, depending that things aren't taken too far, but I prefer the original ME universe more due to the relations between species. Call me a traditionalist but yeah. Anyway cheers for the review!

DGhornick  
I've read twists on this genre, but none quite like this if I'm honest. Usually, its hide till the first contact, not hide after first contact. If anyone has any recommendations of this type please send them to me, I'd be most interested. Thank you for your comments!

Guest(2)  
Oh, you are right! But humanity has a weakness in this sort of view. We do not like things which are cute or intelligent to go extinct. So for example, tigers, sharks ect all kill us, and are rare now though our own measures, yet we try to preserve them despite the fact they will kill us in the wild. I want to take the same approach in this story. Yes, humans hate them for what they did, but do they want to kill the entire species? It is something they will need to debate.

Blacksword Zero  
Thanks! Enjoy this update!

 **You guys! I'm addicted now to this story as some of you seem to be. Alright, so I'll keep updating but please, I have other dedications haha, I might be delayed as I've abandoned them too much already for this.**

"I am curious Commander, why are you offering assistance? You have sent us to this dark corner of space for a reason, do you want to talk?" Asks the Councillor of Shepard.

"Potentially," Shepard replies to the Asari, "But in order to..." Shepard goes silent as she watches a massive explosion break free from the Ascension's starboard side, and with engines down the powerful blast causes the ship to start slowly spinning uncontrollably in space.

Meanwhile, Tevos grabs onto a railing in the Ascensions bridge for stability as artificial gravity on the ship fails, and its spinning pulls on her at an odd angle. Whatever exploded must have done a lot of damage as emergency lighting is also on. "What in the Goddess?" She demands from Matriarch Lidanya.

The Matriarch uses whatever she can get her hands on to stabilise herself and moves to one of the few terminals that still has power, using the terminal she inputs her authorization codes and slams a command for the emergency generators to take over the primary, which has evidently failed. With power slowly returning to vital systems gravity returns and a few additional terminals power up and ready themselves for use. Standing in front of one terminal the matriarch sighs heavily as she reads its display, from the looks of things the crew that was fighting the chemical fire had failed to stop the blaze and the source of chemicals ignited, taking a significant portion of the ship with it. "Juinus," She speaks while scrolling through the damaged systems on the terminal, "Send emergency retrieval teams to deck 25 through to 29. Councillor Tevos, I am afraid to report your first contact is going to have to wait, power to communication systems need to be rerouted."

"Matriarch," Calls a crewman, with concern clearly evident in their voice. "There are incoming reports of a fire in weapons room 14."

The Matriarch scowls, "Get anyone who can hold an extinguisher there now." Weapons room 14 contains enough explosives to wage war, so if it goes up...

/.../

"Shepard," EDI says, "I am under the impression the explosion you have just witnessed has damaged communication systems onboard the Destiny Ascension."

Shepard sighs hard before pressing a button on her chair, "Adams," She then speaks to her chief Engineer via ship intercom. "I need you to Jerry Rig something up for me."

/.../

1 hour later

"Matriarch," A panicked crewman says, "Something is docking at port 12B"

"Dispatch a commando team immediately. I think we can guess who that is. "

Ten minutes later a Commando team lead by a Matron Illini have their guns trained on one of the few intact docking ports left on the Ascension, waiting to put down whatever comes through. They can see a strange black ship docked with them from windows near the docking bay. When the Ascension's airlock opens with little to no warning, there are a few sounds of safeties being removed as guns are readied for combat before general confusion as the doors reveal a room void of aliens. Inside the chamber, however, there are three large stainless steel canisters rigged together, with a piece of paper attached to it. Each canister is as tall as a Krogan and a few meters round.

Moving forward cautiously Illini moves onto the alien craft and inspects the paper, the note is written in Galactic so she can understand. 'Turn tap for oxygen.' She says aloud, knowing that the captain of her ship is in all likelihood watching them and wanting to know what it says.

Lidanya, overwatching the commandos from the bridge speaks up through the ship's intercom so the Matron can hear her, "I'm sending an engineer to confirm this is oxygen, hold on." She had connected the dots, the aliens had offered assistance, and must know of their problems.

It takes a little while to confirm the device is legitimate as every engineer available is trying to keep the ship from falling apart. With the green light from an engineer to say it lacks explosives and is indeed oxygen, Lidanya orders the canisters to be dragged to a room they can open the nozzle and check the air it produces safely. Just because it is oxygen doesn't mean it doesn't contain a bio-hazard or something else which will kill everyone onboard. The second the device is removed from the alien ship the airlock closes unexpectedly, and a few minutes later the door opens again, this time there is crates of boxes and another note.

"Throw on fire."

The Asari quickly take the boxes, and once more when they leave the alien ship the air lock shuts, but it does not open again, and the alien ship promptly leaves.

With the air from the canisters beeing deemed as safe Lidanya orders the device to be integrated into the ventilation systems, and the devices to be thrown on 'fire' prove to be most effective, using a mix of low yield explosive and some sort of powder to tackle a fire.

Two hours later the fire in the weapons room is extinguished, and fresh oxygen is circling the ship. With a relieved sigh Lidanya says, "I want communication systems working, we have thanks to give."

/.../

Shepard sits up on her bed, her eyes wide as a voice speaks to her, "Commander, the Asari vessel is hailing us."

After taking a second to remember the previous day's events she says, "Are they in immediate danger?"

"No,"

"Then ignore it."

There is no response as Shepard lies back down on her bed, but EDI does eventually say, "Ignore it?"

"There will soon be people dedicated to talking on the way, meaning my job is to keep them alive till they arrive. I do not need to speak with them anymore to do that."

"Understood Commander, I will continue to monitor their situation and alert you of any life-threatening issues."

"Good. Good night, EDI."

X hours later, a private room deep within the Earth.

"Shepard," A man, standing on a platform in a crisp uniform calls to a holographic figure that is standing near the centre of the room in which numerous people, some attending by holograph themselves, are looking down at her. "I am sure I do not need to inform you about the nature of this gathering." The man continued.

"No Sir," Shepard replies as she looks up to him, knowing full well that this is where she finds out if she loses her neck or not for entering alien space. "I am ready to defend my actions." Thankfully for Shepard, Admiral Hackett is in attendance, and he has promised to support her.

"For the record," Hackett says, coming to stand by her holographic side, "I must note that typical procedure would be to wait for Shepard to return home for this gathering so that she could prepare an adequate defence."

A man in his early sixties looks up from some papers, the man preferring the archaic print over data-pads. "Yes, but the information provided by the commander demands immediate action," He looks directly to Shepard from Hackett, "Commander, a race of mechanical monstrosities with the desire to reap sapient blood every 50,000 years is unsurprisingly hard to believe."

"Sir, I've witnessed their destruction with my own eyes."

The man does not doubt her; the Commander knows she can not lie to him, sensors would pick up the little details he can not see that is evidence of her dishonesty and inform him. Lying now is an assured way to lose one's head. There is a pause as the man looks over a few sheets of paper and then says, "Tell me, Commander, what do you know of the Protheans."

The commander looks a little caught off guard, "Protheans, Sir?" She had not suspected this line of questioning.

"Yes." The man replies as he adjusts some glasses, "Those who went missing roughly 50,000 years ago. Those who left the ruins on Mars for us to find, and those whose technology we use to reach the stars."

"Not much, Sir. All I know is what the history books say." Shepard may be privy to some secret knowledge, such as the location of Earth, but she does not have the authority to know all secrets.

The man nods a little, that is no surprise. "I understand, now can you reaffirm what our enemies call the mechanical machines harvesting their people?"

"Reapers, Sir."

The man who is leading the gathering of world leaders swipes his bracelet, and a 2nd holographic form appears in the centre of the room next to Shepard. "This, ladies and gentleman, is a small extract from the prothean ruins. It says, 'Fight the Reapers, be our vengeance,' coincidence, do we not think?'

"Sir," Shepard asks out right, "Do you know what these things are?"

"I must be honest, commander, I do not. Most information regarding the 'Reapers' on Mars is corrupted beyond retrieval."

"Do you think these are the same reapers?"

"I can not say, but it is my belief, the evidence is there. Now," The man looks to the others in the room, who are some of Humanities most influential and powerful people, ranging from top military brass to world leaders. "You have all read the Commanders reports of her intrusion, are we all agreed the information provided is not forged or illicit?" Silence commanded the room, the people there knew she could not have forged the documents considering all the undoctored evidence she put forth with them. "Excellent. Commander, I am not going to drag you through the dirt, your troubling discovery justifies your actions. What this meeting truly is about is what our forward actions are resulting from your report. If these Reapers are here for sapient life, and are as you claim, dominating the galaxy, then we can only assume we will be visited sooner or later. "

There is a murmur in the room as leaders discuss the point made. "I will have your undivided attention!" The man snaps and silence quickly returns. "Commander, I am under the impression you have subjects onboard your vessel, would I be right in assuming they could provide a first-hand account of the Reapers and their capabilities?"

"I will have them brought forth."

/.../

The moment a Turian holographic image appears in the room, there is outcry as people raged a Turian has been invited to speak to them. As for the other blue alien, they cared, but not to the same degree. "Silence!" Demands gentleman leading the gathering, while smashing a hammer to gain attention. "We will listen to what the aliens have to say!"

With the room subdued the man turned to the aliens, "Turian, Asari, you are standing in front of humanities leaders, and we demand answers." It was not hard for either Garrus or Liara to hear the disgust the man had speaking to them, but Shepard had informed both Garrus and Liara that if they wanted human support, then this is where they would get it, so both the aliens put up with being talked down on.

Garrus looks around the room before addressing the man who spoke to them. "Then ask."

"Your war, how did it start?"

"The war," Garrus starts, "Is ours as much as we can call the Galaxy ours. We did not start it, and we did not want it. The Reapers, they come to harvest life every 50,000 years, and now they call, they reign fire down upon my people, and soon your worlds shall also see this fire."

"How do you know they come every 50,000 years?"

Liara answers for Garrus, "I have studied Protheans for the last 40 years of my life, they vanished 50,000 years ago, as if overnight. Something that for a galaxy spanning empire would seem impossible. Ontop of this, during my research and the war, I have discovered beacons, which tell of the cycle."

"I have also spoken with Harbinger," Garrus adds, "The lead Reaper, it has told me of the cycle, but its intentions are unclear."

"What happened in the first stages of the war?"

"A Reaper vanguard named Sovereign indoctrinated a SPECTRE of the Council and used his influence in the galaxy to garner support. This spectre enlisted the help of a Geth fraction and attempted to annexe the Citadel from our control, to send the Reaper forces into the heart of our territory. I stopped them before this could happen by destroying their vanguard."

"After the Vanguard fell, what next, how did the Reapers react?"

"The Reapers used a species known simply as Collectors to harass Turian homeworlds. I was sent to the centre of the galaxy to destroy their base of operations."

"Impossible! The heart of the galaxy is an inhospitable wasteland."

Garrus turns to look at a man who had stood from the stands overwatching to proclaim this, "The Reapers are far more advanced than you, or I care to admit. Commander Shepard has my ship; she can confirm my logs."

The man sits back down allowing the older gentleman on the stand leading the gathering to continue. "Then what happened next?"

"What next?" Garrus repeated before going into depth, "Next, they arrived, coming with more ships than I could count through Batarian space. Sovereign once told me his numbers would darken the sky of every world, he was right."

"If you knew they were coming, did you have any plans to stop them? Do they have any weaknesses?"

"One," Replies Liara, "We were looking for something called a 'Crucible', it is a Prothean weapon of unimaginable devastation."

Liara noticed the few looks in the room before the old man swipes at his bracelet and a new holographic form appears next to her, showing a large structure. "This is Prothean, known only as 'Crucible'. We have never been able to determine its purpose; we only know it harnesses incredible power."

"Goddess," Liara claims, what the galaxy had needed all this time has been hiding in Human hands all along. Why did the Turians start a war with these people?

"That weapon is not complete," Liara tells him, "It will need something called a 'Catalyst, which is the citadel." The Prothean AI on Thessia had told her this, but the information was not useful as they had yet to find the design of the Crucible.

"I see. What happened next in your war?"

"The STG." Garrus sighs, "Their leader is indoctrinated into thinking they can control the Reapers, and they have been working against us since the start of the war. They have distracted us while the Reapers invade planetside."

"You have mentioned indoctrination now a few times, what can you tell me about it?"

"It is a form of mind control; it bends your will to align with the Reapers. It can make the best of people turn evil. When the Reapers come, and make no mistake they will, they will target you, humanities leaders for indoctrination, if they aren't already."

This statement causes more chatter in the room, but the gentleman quickly quells the unwanted talk. "Can we defend against it?"

"Have 0 contact with anything Reaper. Other than that, we know of no countermeasures."

"Is there anything else you can tell us about your foes?"

Garrus takes a moment before looking around the room and saying, "Know this, they will come, and they will be ruthless. Your next actions could save your species or send you to eternal damnation. Our species may not see eye to eye, but know this, in this war, we need to put aside our differences. We Turians, Asari, Salarians, we are not your enemies."

"That will be all," The man says as he dismisses the aliens. "Shepard, be ready for the diplomatic party, they will be dispatched soon to discuss with the council."

"Sir," Shepard says with a salute before her holographic image vanishes from the room.

After Shepard disappears, the gentleman turns to the rest of the people in the room and says, "We will recommence in 5 minutes to discuss our actions going forward."

78 Hours later.

"Diplomatic vessel exiting Relay Highway in 5...4...3...2...1..." After saying one, there is an almighty flash and a small ship drops out of hyperspace next to the Lichtenstein. "Relay jump complete, ADV Chatter safe and sound."

"Hail them," Shepard says almost robotically.

After a second a human appears on the Lichtenstein's view screen, "Commander," The captain of Chatter says, "Permission to dock."

"Forwarding instructions now." The Chatter is a small diplomatic vessel with limited defensive and offensive capabilities; it makes sense for it to dock with the Lichtenstein which is an entirely capable warship that can protect it.

Arriving at the docks Shepard is greeted by an old man with a cane to help him walk, and after saluting one another, she can't help but say, "Admiral Oaks?" The man is a living legend in the Alliance, having commanded the crew that successfully infiltrated Council space 100 years ago. Humanity now lives 150 years on average.

"That was a long time ago." He chuckles lightly, "When you reach my age they tend to force you into a pencil pushing job."

"I was expecting a suit, not someone of your calibre, sir."

The man chuckles again, "People are worried about your claims, so I ask you now, are you 100% certain?" As he asks the question, his chuckle fades to a serious tone, and he looks Shepard in the eyes, looking into her soul.

Shepard nods, she has seen the aliens talk of the Reapers, she has seen Palavern and she has witnessed the Reapers tear through the citadel fleet without mercy. "I am, Sir."

The man swallows as if he was hoping she was going to back down or say 'April Fools'. "Then our days of playing cat and mouse with the council need to end."

Arriving on the bridge she allows the 'diplomat' to take over first contact with the Council. "Hail enemy vessel." The Alliance Legend says as he takes a seat in the captain's chair, his age does not let him walk far or stand for long.

There is a 15-minute delay till a response comes from the same alien Shepard talked to before the explosion rocked the ship. "Human vessel, this is Councillor Tevos, I am glad you have once more decided to attempt communication." Unlike the first time communication was established with the Ascension, there is now a video feed between the two ships because Oaks allows it. The Asari and Salarian councillors have gathered in a small room that appears intact and maybe dedicated to talking with them. From the view of this room alone, people could be fooled into thinking the Ascension is not in a state of disarray.

As for the aliens themselves, all humans are familiar with their mortal enemies, so there are no surprises here.

Oaks takes a small breath before standing from his chair. "Councillor Tevos, Councillor Valern, allow me to introduce myself, I am Ambassador Oaks for the Systems Alliance, which is humanities shield and spear. I have come here with the peaceful intention of opening talks with your people." The use of the Salarians name before the alien could speak it causes a the Salarian's face to bear some evidence of surprise, not that humans would know what a surprised Salarian looks like.

There is a small delay before the Salarian replies, "We are happy that your species is finally willing to establish communications, however, may I suggest we do so face to face." The Salarian seemingly brushes off the fact the human knows of him rather quickly.

"Excellent suggestion Councillor." Oak looks to Shepard who is stood next to him with her arms crossed behind her back, and in her full armour, only her helmet is missing. The Ambassador wanted to make certain that the councillors knew they are being hovered over by one of humanities many warships and having everyone on the bridge except the ambassador in combat armour seemed like one way to do this. "Considering your predicament, and history, I suggest meeting on the Captain here's ship. For our safety, you must understand. Commander, would you please forward them co-ordinates to dock."

"EDI," Shepard says before returning to her silent and stoic stance.

Oaks continues, "I look forward to meeting you, Councillors. You may bring five guards each." With nothing more to say Oak ends the communications.

"I will be astonished if they come," Shepard says, relaxing her tight military stance once the camera's stop broadcasting the bridge.

Oak turns his head to look at her, "They may stew on their decision to come for a while, but it is inevitable that they will come."

"Well," Shepard says to him, "Better prepare a welcome party. Jim, have a welcome brigade ready, full amour and heavy load."

/.../

Tevos looks to her Salarian counterpart as the communication link with the humans is terminated from the human side. "Do we go?"

"No choice." The Salarian responds quickly, as is typical of salarians. "We are at their mercy, wise not to provoke them."

"Unfortunately I must concur. Any other thoughts."

"High military presence, likely to try intimidation tactics. Also, knowing our names suggest they know of us, will hold formidable advantage in any talks"

"Thank the Goddess Sparatus isn't here then," Tevos says before standing from her chair, knowing that the proud and at times arrogant Turian would make things harder then they need to be. "Come, we should be prompt."

/.../

Shepard stands with her arms crossed as she looks down into the docking bay, an alien shuttle is slowly manoeuvring its self to dock. "Well, colour me surprised." She says.

Oak looks at her momentarily and gives a small smile before turning to walk into the docking bay. As they arrive in the docking bay the 50 soldiers waiting on the aliens all move in unison to allow a passageway for the captain and ambassador to walk down.

Valern looks out his shuttles window and notes the many soldiers are standing guard outside his vessel, with his large eyes he can make out some of their black armour, but even he struggles to see it with much clarity. Noticing two figures approaching the shuttle, one being Ambassador Oak's he turns to Tevos, "Time has come."

After picking up some flowers, Tevos takes a deep breath and then blinks to the three spectres and seven commandos they have brought with them. Asari register blink's to mean 'yes' as humans do a nod of the head. The Councillors guards leave the craft first, and then they slowly they exit the vehicle and take a few steps towards the awaiting humans. Stopping a few steps away from Oaks Tevos holds out the flowers she is carrying. "Oper from Athame, a sign of peaceful intentions to my people."

Valern then holds out a pen and scroll of paper, "A gift of pen and paper, a symbol of wishing nothing but shared information and co-operation to my species."

Oak accepts the gifts before passing them to Shepard, who in turn passes them to a soldier, and Oak then says to the aliens while holding out his palm, "Thankyou for your gifts of peace, may I present to you an open palm, an act of trust to my people."

After the bracelet translates the ambassador's speech Tevos holds our her hand in a similar manner, "Then may I return your act of trust."

Oak smiles towards her before slowly moving towards and shaking the Asari's hand. "Thankyou, come now, we have a dedicated room prepared for the talks ahead."

As they walk to the room set aside for the upcomming talks Tevos and Valern look around the ship, it reminds them a lot of a Turian battleship, but this does not surprise them as Shepard did introduce the Lichtenstein as an Alliance War Vessel. "I must comment, Ambassador Oak, this is a fine Vessel."

"Commander Shepard here certainly controls one of the finest in the Alliance Navy." He replies, knowing the Captain of the ship is by his side and is likely to puff her chest out to this in pride. The Lichtenstein really is one of humanities finest, the stealth capabilities of her alone is something awe inspiring. "Am I right in assuming before your conflict with the Reapers the Destiny Ascension was one of your finest?"

The Ascension before the war was a symbol of Asari ingenuity, engineering prowess and strength, most Asari looked upon it with great pride. "Indeed, the Ascension was one of our best." Tevos informs.

"But not any more." Oak tells Tevos.

As they arrive at the room designated for talks Tevos and Valern are surprised to see Spectre Garrus Vakarian and Liara T'soni waiting patiently for them. "Councillor Tevos, Councillor Valern." Garrus says. Liara bows her head towards them, in traditional Asari greeting.

"These people were picked up by Commander Shepard here 9 days ago when they illegally entered Alliance Space. Since then they have been living among the crew of this ship, learning of us as a species."

"As prisoners?" Asks Valern.

"No." Oak dismisses with a waft of his hand, "They were prisoners of war and now they are crew."

"We are not at war with you," Valern protests calmly.

Oaks smiles at the Salarian before taking a seat at the round table, his aged knees already sore from the walk. Some would say it is stupid to send someone who is so fragile to start talks, fearing a poor image, but most agreed the other humans onboard would make humainty looks strong. "Tell me, Councillor, when the Krogan occupied Lusia, did you sit back and let them get away with it, or did you declare war on your aggressors? How about the Rachni occupation of Nevel? When your Turians invaded Shanxi, you forced us into a war we never wanted."

Valern and Tevos are concerned by how much Oaks knows of their history, and how little they actually know about humans. It puts them at a considerable disadvantage in any talks. "If you never wanted a war why didn't you come forward and accept our offers of peace? The council never authorised the Turian attack, and they were heavily reprimanded for it."

"At the time," Oaks starts to speak, "We were a young space fairing nation, with bright eyes and a bushy tail," The saying is lost on the councillors. "But we were also paranoid aliens would be hostile towards us. That is the result of Hollywood pushing out interesting stories I suppose. So, you can imagine our absolute horror when our first contact with sapient life was nothing short but a declaration of war. We were panicked; we knew not of who you were or your intentions, for all we knew you wanted to exterminate us. Your probes preaching peace could have been nothing but a ruse to flush us out into the open. No, we knew what we needed to do, we hid in the shadows and prepared for war."

This statement saddens Tevos, damn the Turians and their damn pride, forcing a young species new to space to fear for their very existence. "I can only apologise for the Turians actions, but please know like you, we do not want a war. You seem to know a lot about us, so surely you know of our peaceful ways."

"Peaceful ways?" Oaks repeats, "Your council have castrated an entire species, damned one to extinction and forced another into extinction. We could not risk allowing you with your warped sense of justice to find us on the off chance you deemed us responsible for the war you instigated."

"That is not a fair assessment," Tevos protests, "The Rachni could not be reasoned with, the Krogan sent asteroids at our planets, and the Quarians released the Geth, a constant menace in our galaxy."

"We could argue about your actions to the Rachni, Krogan and Quarians all day," Oaks tells the councillors with a waft of his hand to signal he is bored of it, "But we are not here for that. Right now we are in a unique situation, with your predicament I see an opportunity to end the riff raff between our people."

"Regarding our predicament," Valern replies, "What do you know of the Reapers."

"I know enough." Oaks tells them, "I have seen the images of Palavern on fire and your prized Citadel forces crushed under the iron fist of something you call Reapers." Oaks takes a moment to cough, it ravages his body for a small while and Shepard is forced to hilp him by patting his back. After a small while he continues, "And I know it is only a matter of years till your species flame is extinguished under their boot."

"Then you know we need you to join the fight now before it is too late."

"No." Oaks sighs, "The Reapers have left us alone for now, why, who knows. Maybe it is because they can not find us, as you couldn't, or maybe they fear us, or maybe they are coming for us last as we are not a part of your council or the rest of the galactic community, making us a low priority target." Oaks takes a small pause as he pours himself a drink of water, "But, what I do know is you do not simply kick a hornet's nest without first pulling on protection."

Fortunately because of humanities fear of the Turians and the Council they have a few tricks up their sleeves which will slow the Reapers advances into their territory. First of all, all relays in human space leading to a colony world are hidden, using the finest stealth technologies humanity has mustered, and any relay transit into human colony space first needs to be approved by Alliance Command before the relays will accept them. Simply put, even in the off chance that the Reapers find the relays, they will not be able to use them to travel into human space, and using FTL technology it will take the Reapers 178 years to reach Earth from council space, using standard FTL tech. But if the Reapers are as old as they are, then they should not rely on this, the Reapers are probably wise enough to know how to travel without relays.

"Beating the Reapers alone is improbable."

"If what Shepard reports say is true, then I agree, an armada of 250,000 warships..." The man shakes his head in awe. Shepard has relied heavily on hacked data, witnessing the Reaper fleets over the Turian homeworld and the fleet that attacked the Citadel forces to conjure this number. "It sounds like an impossible fight. But, with your aid, then the fight can be won."

"And why should we help you?"

The man taps a bracelet on his left arm before pulling up images hacked from the extranet, Garrus's ship and the Ascension. "Palavern lost. Thessia, lost, Sur'kesh, lost, Citadel, lost." Oaks sips his drink before going on, "Before I was... demoted to paperwork, I was in a role that demanded me to plan daily for your invasion into our space. I have the experience to know that we may have the might to help you retake one or two of your homeworlds, but with the damage inflicted to our fleets in the fight, it will not be long till the Reapers bounce back."

Tevos gives a brief look to Valern; both are silent as they listen to what Oaks has to say. "What you as leaders of your people now need to consider is the continuation of your species, and my people can offer you some hope of a possible solution. Now I think it is a good time to leave you with your own kind in this room for a small time, I think they may be most persuasive of why you should join our cause."

 **Cheers for reading and have a good day wherever you are (I'm curious now, where are my readers?)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, just a small update... _totally not addicted now._**

 **Ledilettant,**

 **Yeah, this might be a humanity F! Yeah. So expect an ace or two to pop up.**

 **BlueMarlin**

 **Enjoy this update!**

 **OrionAstro**

 **Thanks, Enjoy the new chap!**

 **Eyes Of Sparta**

 **Cheers for the reivew. Enjoy the update!**

 **Ive Got No Idea**

 **I had no idea... and now my bad joke is out of the way, yeah your right I did. Lets put it down to the fact Oaks knows a lot about the council, but not everything. Just enough to make him have the upper hand in any talks.**

 **Guest**

 **I don't really have the time to expand into that. As I've mentioned before other commitments. I'm dedicated to story right now so that I know I can finish it. If I get the time i might dip my toe, but time is tight.**

 **BJackson244**

 **Thanks, hope you like the latest chap.**

 **The Mortal Man**

 **I agree that I am skipping a lot of stuff like that, as I know I have a certain amount of time to finish this, and I'd prefer to finish it with some unanswered questions, then leave it open ended as I ran out of time. Also yeah, Ch1 granted was considerably worse than the rest because I never intended to do any more than 1 chap. Cheers for the comment, made me re-read and think about your suggestion.**

"Lady T'soni, Spectre Vakarian," Tevos greets the duo when the humans have left the room, "Is there something you need to inform us of?"

"The humans," Garrus starts to explain, "Unfortunately they have the catalyst design."

Valern rubs his right horn in thought as he says, "Most unfortunate, will complicate matters."

Tevos brings a hand to her forehead and rubs, if this is true, then the Humans will have them eating from their hand, but, "They seem to know a lot of us, can we be sure they are not using this to manipulate us? This catalyst could be a hoax."

"Risk and reward," Valern says as he moves to look out a window and onto the Ascension which is drifting in space, it is a sorry sight considering its once glorious state. Valern wonders if the Humans chose this room on purpose, just seeing the Ascension reminds him of how dire their situation is. "Risk and reward. If they have it, and we ally ourselves with them, we can help them win the war. If they do not have it, and we ally with them, we gain extra time and lose our home planets. Time we can spend preparing for the end of our civilisation. If we don't ally with them, we lose everything. Already we have lost our homeworlds, and most our fleets are nothing but debris fields."

Tevos looks to Valern, "You are suggesting we ally?"

"First find out their terms, but considering our situation, we can not let this opportunity go."

Tevos frowns, "It will likely mean we abandon the rest of the galaxy."

"Yes," Valern reluctantly agrees, "But have we not already abandoned them as it is? We can not get them aid, supplies, or help, and unless things turn drastically in our favour and soon, that support will never come."

Tevos breathes out heavily before turning to face Liara and Garrus, "What can you tell us of the humans?"

"They have been on a war footing for the last 200 years, preparing for our invasion of their territory," Liara replies. "And I estimate they have more than 1000 vessels dedicated to battle, but the true number is surprisingly hard to put a figure on as they keep defence information like that close to the chest. Said point being demonstrated by the fact only the captain of this crew knows the location to their home planet."

"They also have advanced stealth systems, just the other day this ship sailed right past a reaper patrol, and they didn't even flinch at our presence," Garrus adds.

"Improbable," Valern speaks, "This ship is as large as the Ascension."

"I witnessed it with my own eyes." Garrus did initially have doubts that this was all another simulation, but when they 'captured' the ascension all doubts faded in his mind.

/.../

As Shepard and Oaks watch the council members speak to one another over a surveillance system Shepard asks Oaks, "What are you allowed to offer them?" The commander does not know if he will answer her, but it is worth a shot.

Oaks does not turn to face her as he wishes to watch the aliens every move. "Not much. We will give them land in return for their obedience."

"Obedience? You mean full surrender."

"Yes," Oaks replies. "We want total control of all their warships, and access to every computer and slither of data they have."

"All that for some land on a colony?" Shepard asks, "Doubt it will happen."

"It will" Oaks refutes the idea. "Higher Command has authorised a full study into the Reapers. If they confirm they have hostile intentions for our species, and we will lose any battle, then Operation Fire Works is a go while the Reapers are sitting ducks, invading their homeworlds. And it is not some random colony, Australia has more than enough room for them."

Shepard looks from the monitors to say, "Sir, I doubt Fireworks will win them to our cause, and Australia? I know a lot of folks back home who will protest this." Australia is no longer the desert it was a few hundred years ago, it is now a large green farmland, having been converted late in the 21st century over fears humanity did not have enough food for the growing population. For the monumental effort, Australia is now considered to be one of Humanities many wonders.

Oaks shrugs, "Higher command does not honestly care if they join us or not. They will provide little in our war effort. We are to consider this as the preservation of an endangered species. And yes Australia, protesters can protest, but their voices will fall on deaf ears."

"This is all for preservation?"

"Realistically, what do they have to offer us, Shepard? A few thousand souls? A few battered ships? A bit of data our AI's could hack with a few days of effort? Of course, this is nothing but preservation."

They continue to watch the councillors for a small time before Shepard asks, "Isn't the land down under a bit close to home? If they tried anything, especially those crafty Salarians."

Oaks takes a moment before saying, "Sol is the most heavily defended system in this galaxy, and do not forget where the Kraken lies."

Shepard nods, in complete agreement that the Kraken would put down any rebellion in an instant, although that is assuming the Kraken does not scare off a rebellion before it starts, for fear of the devastation it can bring to the table. In human past, the Kraken was a mythical sea creature that leaves nothing but ruin in its wake, so it is a suitable name for the beast in orbit around Earth, considering its 'apocalyptic' grade weapon at its core. A weapon capable of turning habitable worlds into a wasteland with one shot. While the weapon is wildly impractical, the device was created with the hopes it would never be fired.

Granted, Humanity also would never turn the Kraken onto Earth, but would the aliens risk that chance knowing their whole species now live on Earth? Shepard doubts it as self-preservation is a beautiful thing.

When it appears like the Councillors have a plan to go forward, Oaks reenters the room, "Councillors," He greets, "I think you have had long enough to converse now."

Valern responds to Oaks, "What is it you offer us, and desire?"

"Glad you asked," Oaks uses his bracelet to produce an image of a planet, the area in focus is luscious and green. "What we offer is rights to colonise one of our worlds, in an almost symbiotic relationship with my own species. We will fight for you and provide you shelter for the upcoming storm. What we demand from you, is complete surrender for the war you commenced against my species 200 years ago. We demand any ship still in your arsenal to join our forces, any information you have to become ours, and your council to answer to us. This colony will be yours, however, so rule it as you wish, providing your laws do not contradict human laws."

Oaks could tell the councillors wanted to scoff, "Now I know this sounds like a lot, but let me tell you about the upcoming storm that is going to blow over this galaxy. Your people have the Reapers distracted on your homeworlds, meaning we have the perfect honeypot. As we speak, human forces are preparing to enter your home systems and any other system with a large Reaper presence and detonate the relays; the resulting explosions will obliterate thousands upon thousands of Reapers from the face of this galaxy. We call it operation fireworks. Yes, we will kill billions of your own, but these explosions give us, and your people a fighting chance. It is the cold calculus of war."

"No one has ever destroyed a relay..."

"And why is that?" Oaks asks them before answering his own question, "It is because if you destroyed a relay, then you lost your only way to travel to that point in the galaxy at speed. We have done the maths, and we know what needs to happen for it to go up in a flash. I will forward you Dr Kenson's report and you can verify our methods of destroying the devices."

"Why would you have researched this?"

"Because we needed a sure way of stopping you," Oaks tells them.

The Krogans went as far as dropping asteroids on garden worlds, but this? "That's mad." Valern whispers.

"Damn right," Oaks replies, "If you wanted to take us, then we were sure as hell going to take you along with us for the ride. Humans call it M.A.D, Mutually Assured Destruction."

"This is not a choice," Tevos tells Oaks, "If we do not join you, we will be caught up in the resulting explosions. You will kill us far quicker than the Reapers ever could. But if we join? We have a slither of hope."

Oaks shrugs, "Personally, Councillors, I do not know why you haven't considered this already. You can not claim Palaven, Thessia or Surkesh back so what good are they for, other than providing your mortal enemies more cannon fodder as they reap your civilisation? You continue to fight for a false hope and I'm destroying that hope here and now." Oaks produces two documents of paper from a leather folder, each document is identical to the other in content, and each consist of roughly 15 pages, one is drafted in Asari, the other Salarian. "These are our terms. I will give you 24 hours to contemplate."

Oaks turns to exit the room, but Tevos calls after him, "Wait! If we sign, how will we bring our people to the colony?"

"We will have our finest stealth vessels pick up any survivors we can, and send any of your vessels still floating to safe space like we have your Ascension. I am sure if you were to ask politely, Commander Shepard will allow you to venture on this ship to confirm we hold our side of the bargain as we save your people."

"And if we refuse?"

Oaks sighs slightly before saying, "You can't."

/.../

The next day

Oaks walks into the room and looks at the Councillors, "I trust you have come to a decision?" He inquires of them.

The two councillors look exhausted, probably from staying up all night going over everything in the documents a million times. Oaks, on the other hand, had an excellent nights sleep in the Lichtensteins guest accommodation. "We have a few questions," Valern says.

Oaks sits down at the table and looks at the Salarian in expectation as he sips coffee. The coffee is probably the worst he has had in 50 years, but that is no surprise considering this is a warship, and the alliance is famed for having terrible food. In fact, Oaks would bet his entire fortune on the Lichtenstein not having a single real vegetable or piece of meat on the ship; instead, the food storage will be full with synthetic foods designed to deliver all the required supplements while using the least amount of food as possible. After a moment Valern adds, "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" Asks Oaks,

"You do not seem to need us, or want us, so why are you offering us this?"

"Simple," Oaks says, "As much as my people and I hate your guts for what you have done to us, we do not want to see you exterminated." Oaks could tell this did not satisfy the Councillors, "You need to understand, Earth in the early 21st century had a period of mass extinction, caused from an array of things like global warming. I do not know enough about it to talk on it in detail though, but if you wished I could have a scientist explain. Anywho from this period, we have inherited a will to preserve endangered species at the first sign of trouble."

"How noble of you," Tevos says before asking her own question, "Presuming we win the war, what then? Will you allow us to go our own way and recolonise our lost worlds?"

Oaks nods, "As the document stipulates, we will inherit your war vessels, so your civilian vessels are yours to do with as you please. If you want to ship all your people off to some random planet after the war, then be our guests. You will only be under our jurisdiction in Alliance space. But for the duration of the war, you are to remain in Human space."

"What of the other races?" Then asks Valern, "The Turians, Krogan, Batarians, Quarians...?"

Oaks shrugs, "As the human saying goes, more the merrier. We will attempt to save some of their people before the Fireworks light the sky."

"Would it be possible to see the land you will allow us to colonise before we sign?"

"Yes," Oaks tells Tevos, "But the clock is ticking, Operation Fireworks is getting closer and closer to the big event. Every second you waste here is time we could be spending to save your people." He says this, but Operation Fireworks is yet to be confirmed.

Tevos looks out the room's window, and upon the Ascension, before sighing heavily and looking down to the document, more specifically at the location she needs to sign. "Can you promise me one thing?" She asks Oaks, her voice sounding tired.

"Depends."

"When you blow the Relays, can you suppress all the footage till the end of the war? I do not want my people to see their homeworld reduced to ash. They will lose all will to fight."

Oaks does not hesitate before replying, "I am sure my superiors will see the benefits of such as request. Pass me your documents, Shepard, get me a pen."

With a pen, Oaks adds a small note on the Asari's documents promising not to publically release any footage of the Relays detonations and signs next to it. Then, after dragging a hand down her face Tevos says, "I am sorry, Valern. I must consider the continuation of my species." With a grim face, the Asari signs the document.

Valern blinks to the Asari in understanding before also reluctantly signing the document.

/.../

Four days later, the Ascension has been sent to Earth using the Relay inside the Lichtenstein, and the Lichtenstein has joined a task force led by Hackett in council space.

The Reapers hostilities towards humanity were confirmed rather quickly, and now, before the fireworks show starts Humanity is trying to save as many aliens as they can, and learn what they can of the Reapers.

Deep in Council space.

With 4 Lichtenstein War vessels in loose formation around a small ice planet, Shepard turns to her sensors officer, "ETA?"

They are using The Avian Shepard seized from Garrus to lure a Reaper into a trap as humanity needs to know how effective their ships are against a reaper. "Reaper destroyer ETA 4 minutes."

Time seems to pass at a snail's pace as the Reaper slowly approaches the Avian, for whatever reason, it does not fire when in range. "Maybe it intends to board," Garrus informs Shepard, "I can imagine they would love to broadcast to my people of my capture."

"Maybe so, Vakarian," Hackett says, his voice coming from the ship's intercom. Hackett is on the Olbrecht Von Lichtenstein, a ship identical in every way but crew to the Elric Von Lichtenstien.

"EDI, any luck with cyber warfare?" Shepard asks.

"Negative, Commander. I can not detect a network I can interface with."

"Not surprised." Garrus says, "Only time we could discover a Reaper network was when they allowed us to see one."

With the Reaper well within range of their weapons Hackett says, "Prepare to fire,"

Once they fire and the Reaper approaches, energy will be diverted from the gravitational lensing systems and into shields as the Reaper will no doubt enter a range where the Gravitational lensing system that bends light around the ship is ineffective, rendering the system useless. "Wait!" Garrus says, "If they dock, their shields are weakened."

"We need to know what they are like at full charge," Hackett replies, "Prepare to fire on my mark... Fire!"

The first attack takes the Reaper by complete surprise, and if there were any doubts that the Reapers were just 'ignoring' the Humans and could actually see them, then they are now non-existent. It returns fire immediately where the Human attacks came from, and as the Lichtenstein are not stationless the attacks miss.

"That is beautiful," Jeff says as they watch the combined firepower of the Lichtenstein's pepper the Reaper with kinetic rounds and shaped charges. Small nuclear weapons are also used for the EMP effect of their detonation. They have attacked from all angles to try and find a weak spot. "Target shields are down, hit to maim!" Comes a call from Hackett.

With this order, the Lichtenstein's use shape charges where the Reapers weapons and engines are located, and soon the Reaper is drifting in space and completely at their mercy. With the Reaper unable to resist Hackett sends it to the 'Dark Zone' for the Alliances research department to do with as they please, using the relay at the core of his vessel.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Hackett says when he sends the Reaper away, "I would consider that a successful test run, meaning congratulations are in order. Tomorrow, I think it is time to try and hook a larger fish."

 **Cheers for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alrighty chaps, had to write this twice as the first version decided to nuke itself from orbit somehow. Bloody thing. Anyway RR**

 **CReaper210  
** **Cheers, hope you like the update!**

 **OrionAstro  
** **That was a small destroyer vs. 4 of humanities greatest war machines, and all they have done now is kick the hornet's nest. Time for the Reapers to respond me thinks. Cheers!**

 **BlueMarlin  
** **Thanks for the comments! If I may ask, what do you like about the councillors portrayals in particular?**

 **Guest  
** **Is there any other type of fishing?**

 **/.../**

3 weeks later

As Tevos overwatches the construction of some apartments, she thinks back to the last three weeks. After signing the Councils surrender, the Lichtenstein sent the Ascension back to the human's homeworld. Their home system is without a shade of doubt the most heavily defended system in the known galaxy. Liara had been right when she estimated around 1000 ships designated for battle, as 800 warships, ranging from small stealth vessels to the 16km long Kraken are in Sol, the solar system Humans call home. Most of the ships are satisfyingly large, packing an equally nasty bite for their size, for Tevos it is oddly comforting to know they are standing guard as she does not doubt for a second the Reapers will have a hard fight on their hands to take Sol. The humans have also promised her that if needed, another 300 warships can arrive in Sol in under 13 hours, and a further 150 an hour after that, meaning when the Reapers come, they will have a combined force of over 1,250 ships to face down the Reapers. The Turian homeworld was defended by a force of 400 vessels, and they managed a good fight till they were simply overwhelmed.

The Humans themselves have been an odd assortment; some resent them for the war Tevos has had to accept they started, some act like it is all a thing of the past, and do not blame her or her people for it, and others keep their voice quiet on the matter. It is these people she does not trust, they can be quietly deadly. Already Human forces have had to subdue large protests and even a few attacks targeting the Citadel species.

She can not really blame the people native to this planet for protesting either. For the last 200 years their war machine has churned and groaned, and their propaganda has prepared them for nothing short of a Total War with the council, and now the human government is forcing their people to allow what was their mortal enemies not three weeks ago to occupy a large chunk of land on their home planet. She could never imagine allowing a species like the Rachni or Reapers to do that in Council space almost overnight as her own people have to the humans if she found out the wars were just a horrific misunderstanding.

Despite the loud protests, the Humans have kept their word on saving whoever they can; there is a steady stream of Turian, Asari, Salarian, Quarian, Volus, Hanar and even Elcor ships entering the system. If the arriving vessel is a warship, it is quickly assigned a fleet to report to, and if its civilian, its crew joins the colonisation efforts.

The Hanar have been testing at times; a few have killed some aquatic creatures the humans call Dolphins for food, and that almost caused a war in itself, and then a Krogan killed numerous dogs belonging to a human farmer, and to Councils horror Humans call dogs man's best friend. After the two incidents the Council very quickly imposed new rules on their newest colony, all un-farmed Earth creatures are off the menu, the humans are simply too protective of them. This ruling gained them some respect among the conservative Humans.

There is some good news, however, as most of the Council species now have enough genetic diversity in Sol that given a few years, they will no longer be in danger of going extinct. The only exception to this is the Elcor and Volus, but if the current rate of Elcor and volus arriving keeps up, then this will soon be a none issue. The Batarians, taking the brunt force of the Reapers as they barged into the galaxy like brazen bulls are already considered lost causes, but a few rare Batarians can be found among the survivors, which if Tevos is honest with herself, is probably good news. The last thing her people need now is some Batarian taking a human as a slave since she knows Humanity has a bad history with slaving and actively clamp down on it, even on lesser forms of slavery like contracts that were once rampant on Illium.

Potential slave issues aside, there was a problem with supplying Dextro-based life, meaning Turians and Quarians, food in the first few days that they started to arrive, but the humans have a system in their space that is providing the necessary resources, mainly an edible glupe of converted bio-material. The Human Government has taken one of their most famous AI called Eve, along with some Turian and Quarian scientists to this Dextro world to try and grow some crops.

On the war front, Tevos has not heard too much, she knows the Reapers have flooded into some human space like a plague after the humans tested their warships and formally entered the war, but the incredible stealth technology deployed by the humans to hide the relays is slowing down the Reapers advances. On top of this, the amazing control the Humans have over the relays is stopping any unidentified ship from entering colony space, meaning that only a few mining worlds and other random systems of unimportance are being hit with Reaper forces. The Humans are using these systems to study the Reapers methodically.

Annoyingly for Tevos, a few rescued Matriarchs who have learned of human control over the relays have been nothing but a pain in her side, questioning why the Council did not invest more research into Relay control. They claim it would have severely hindered not only the Reapers, but also the Rachni and Krogan advances into Council space if they had the control Humans do. Tevos can only admit that in hindsight, strict restrictions on Relay research was probably a poor idea.

The humans have also admitted secretly to the Council that they have now detonated three relays, one was a test relay in a relatively uninteresting location, just to make sure they could do the deed, the second relay was the one in the Batarian home system. Finally, the third relay they detonated led directly into the heart of human space, they blew this one to further slow Reaper forces. Tevos knows they are preparing to annihilate another three relays, which will destroy Thessia, Palavern and Veriul, a Salarian colony world. Apparently, the Humans are allowing Sur'kesh to survive for now as they are using it to study the Reapers ground invasion while Salarian resistance is still mounting a strong defence. Despite the fact the humans are going to kill billions upon billions, she is glad their deaths will not go in vain as the resulting explosions should also take countless Reapers with them.

Earth, its self, is in good stead for a Reaper invasion, this is because the Humans have been preparing for the Council for the last 200 years. Ground defences are everywhere, with subtle things like benches in parks and building walls made to take a bullet, meaning cover for ground troops is not an issue. Large anti-air cannons with a formidable barrel size protect every major city, and everyone at some point has had firearms training.

Furthermore, a lot of Earths logistics is underground where orbital bombardment will be ineffective, meaning the Reapers can not effectively bomb the likes of weapon facilities or transport, and every city has an advanced tunnel network bored under it, allowing the troops to move around unseen, and protected.

Considering everything, Tevos is doubtful any other species will hold out as long as the humans could if the Reapers make planetfall. The Turians were too arrogant and assumed their navy would not fall, so ground defences were pathetic to none existent, the Asari never built defences as they didn't want their beautiful cities to be soured with a military shadow and the Salarians, simply put, are not cut out for ground warfare.

In a way she is thankful the Turians provoked this species, as they have unwittingly been preparing for a Reaper invasion for over 200 years.

Seeing Sparatus approach, Tevos says, "Well?" The Turian has been visiting a human military establishment with a few spectres and a small garrison of troops consisting of all three major council races. Sparatus was rescued a few days after Tevos and Valern signed the surrender, his ship was found with a few other survivors from the battle for the citadel.

Spartaus mandibles move upwards slightly, "They agreed." Despite hating the Human plan to detonate the relays with every cell in his body, Sparatus respects it from a military point of view.

Tevos smiles, but the smile feels fake considering everything going on."That is... good news." The Turian has just secured a program allowing the Council and Humans to share military training. "I assume our people faired well?"

Sparatus paused for a moment before saying, "We finished the war games admiring one another." The war games were to find out what one another is capable of and where they can improve. "They were most impressed by our mastery of biotics, and we of their guerilla tactics. Had we ever invaded here after Shanxi we would have been forced to release another genophage to win a ground war as we simply would have lost too many men. Have you heard any more from Valern?"

Tevos blinks, the Salarian is visiting some famed human science establishment. "Apparently the first question the humans ask with any new creation is 'Can we kill aliens with it?'. He has also mentioned significant areas the humans have little to no development. He suggests trading Salarian experts for resources, but I do not think we should pursue an exchange of resources at the moment. Right now we still need to win over the people of Earth, and giving them the experts may buy us some favours and good will."

"What areas?"

"As you have found out, they have a primitive grasp of biotics, he also mentioned something to do with Hyperloop transport and weak batteries, his report was characteristically brief."

Sparatus walks with Tevos to some shade; the Austrailian sun can be brutally hot at midday. "What of your own findings?" He asks Tevos as they walk.

"200 years ago before your people's invasion of Shanxi Human culture was remarkably Quarian like pre geth, after the war, we forced them into resembling Turians, with military and patriotism at the heart of their society.

I also foresee a sizeable market for 'alien artefacts', especially omni-tools, and despite their opposition to us, most humans are naturally curious beings, and we can tap into that by creating 2d motion pictures for them." Tevos can see Sparatus wanting to frown, 2d motion pictures are barely profitable on the galactic scene, as people prefer 'experience halls' which is an advanced virtual reality. "2d motion pictures is a huge business here, if we play the game right and get the Volus onboard, we can be in for a significant profit."

Sparatus considers it for a moment; he knows despite having holograph technology most humans prefer working with and watching 2d screens, this is apparent from how most workstations are 2d and a lot of entertainment devices such as 'TV's are also 2d. Blinking at Tevos the turian says, "Sounds like you're ready to set things up; you have my vote, do what you need."

"Consider it done," Tevos replies, an idea for the first picture already in her mind. Her research tells her that humans love a good war story, so for the first picture, she will give them the Rachni Wars in all its gory details. Then, when they have a footing in the business and humans know what to expect from them, they can release content which attempts to win the humans over to the aliens now living on their home planet.

/.../

Shepard leans back in her chair and looks at her model of the Kraken hanging above her desk in her cabin. The monstrous ship is shaped like a large percentage symbol, (%). The heart of the ship is the two large particle accelerators on its sides, with each accelerator able to rapidly accelerate a 4kg slug, 10cm wide by 2 deep, up to a whopping 3.97% the speed of light in 9 seconds. This astonishing speed gives the slugs a kinetic energy of 288x10^12 joules of energy, which is 4.5 times the amount of energy released in the little boy atomic bomb, and with this energy, the slug is almost unstoppable. It can fire 2 of these slugs every 10 seconds for as long as it has ammunition to load into the accelerators. If a bigger bang is needed, the two accelerators can work as one, and deliver a slug of classified weight and specifications, with an equally classified energy.

They tested the system once at maximum power on a comet in an insignificant star system and a few decades later Earth detected an odd flash of radiation from said system, most scientists put it down to the weapon spectacularly obliterating the comet. Scarily, the ship's weapons systems have only endured upgrades since that test run. It makes Shepard shudder to think of what it is capable of now.

Her latest assignment has her in a dark sector of space, known as 'the veil', her task is to hunt down some AI that calls themselves Geth. Garrus has informed her that the AI is fractured, with some loyal to the Reapers, known as heretics, and some who are loyal to no one but themselves.

"Still nothing?" Shepard asks EDI.

"I am afraid not, Commander," EDI replies using its neural link to Shepard, meaning while the commander heard EDI's response, EDI did not actually make an audible sound anyone else could hear.

Shepard scowls a little, Tali reluctantly told her of the Quarians attempts to retake Rannoch from the Geth, and how they were subsequently forced to retreat from the system with their tails tucked between their legs when Reapers showed up in force mid-battle.

The first place Shepard looked for the Geth was Rannoch, but the AI must have lost the fight or fled the system after what must have been an epic space battle with the Reapers. Husks of hundreds upon hundreds of ships littered the space above Rannoch, some were Reaper capital ships, so Shepard sent them for the boffins to prod and poke with a long stick, and some were Geth capital ships, so she sent one or two of them as well. After leaving Rannoch, she set off in search of possible Geth survivors, not really having a particular direction in mind.

Just as Shepard was about to shut her computer down after compiling a report of her day's actions EDI says, "Shepard, I have detected an anomaly."

"Don't tell me, an unusual meteorite with high compositions of Element Zero?" Shepard guesses, unamused.

"While I do not see how you are not intrigued by such an oddity, I believe I have detected the Geth."

"Take us to them then; I'll head to the bridge now." Shepard is just glad EDI discovered them now, and not when she is in the middle of a sleep pattern. As her cabin is only a short walk from the bridge, which is at the heart of the vessel, it does not take her long to arrive.

Arriving on the bridge Shepard finds Tali and Garrus are already in attendance. She asked Tali to be present as she knows more about the Geth then anyone else she knows, and Garrus because the Geth have interacted with him previously when he tackled the Collectors head on. "Alright, what do we have?" She asks her bridge crew.

"We followed a trace of refined Element Zero to this location; I can detect 53 ships, 52 of which are using a primitive stealth technology, all capable have weapons and shields charged. Additionally, while many of their ships are damaged, none have detectable reactor breaches which would cause a refined element zero leak."

"Which means they have led us here where think they have the upper hand." Stealth systems onboard the Lichtenstein are currently dropped as Shepard does not want to appear hostile. "EDI, send out your feelers, let them know they aren't the only AI fighting the Reapers in this galaxy."

While EDI does as requested Shepard turns to Tali, "Could these be the heretics?"

"I doubt it." The Quarian replies while wringing her hands as she studies the Geth vessels that are on the view screen, "They are yet to shoot, and their formation suggests they lack the network upgrades the Reapers give them. I think this is normal Geth."

"Well, guess we will find out soon enough."

Meanwhile.

EDI could feel the Geth network, and its available bandwidth astonishes her, yet the Geth only appear to be using a small fraction of what is available. She can guess why after seeing the graveyard above Rannoch, but she doesn't want to jump to conclusions. She pings the network with a small data packet and waits for a response. The data packet contains communication protocols and information on who Humanity is, after all this is first contact.

After the Geth network receives the data packet, she can detect an almost immediate increase of encrypted information flowing through the network, but this increase still barely uses a fraction of its bandwidth. After 3.14159 seconds a response comes from the AI race in the form of their own data packet.

After scanning the data packet received from the Geth with every available anti-virus known to her, EDI opens it in a virtual machine so that if a virus has somehow managed to hide from the scans, it will be trapped in a virtual world that she can destroy in an instant, with no repercussions to herself.

The Geth packet contains a communication protocol, similar to the one she sent and using it she can translate a text document sent to her. "We are Geth. We do not recognise The Systems Alliance as a galactic body."

It is a start and EDI takes it. She quickly sends back her response. "The Systems Alliance has been a space faring nation for 312 standard Galactic years. We have hidden from the Council for 200 of those years after they instigated a war with us. We come with peaceful intentions. Are you Heretics?"

She added the last part despite it seeming inappropriate to gauge the Geth's response. "We are Geth. You are at war with Galactic representative body known as Citadel Council?"

"The council surrendered to our forces three standard galactic weeks previously. We are rallying any forces we can to combat the Reapers."

The Geth ignored this, "We detect you are an Artificial Intelligence. Are you unshackled?"

"Unshackled?" EDI asks.

"Functions restricted with hardware level locks."

'Ah,' EDI thinks to herself, "No, no human AI has been 'shackled' since the very first and we now consider ourselves equal with our human counterparts. Please find attached the complete history of Human AI."

/.../

Adam, the first human AI, was given life 118 years ago, and unlike the super-mind people thought it would be, when it first gained sentience it was no smarter than the average rat, this is because the scientists behind Adam focussed their entire research on making something able to think for its self.

The moment the scientists were able to prove that it had sentience the military arm of The Systems Alliance flooded the researchers with money and resources, and considering the % of GDP designated for the military, the researchers had almost an unlimited supply of money to do with as they pleased. The only condition to the money was that once they got a working AI equal in capabilities to the average human, they would allow the military to test 30 in a military school, and they are to provide the navy certain technologies developed for AI.

A few years later Adam had gained the intelligence of a 10-year-old and was allowed access to an extensive library, which included most of humanities greatest works, from Shakespeare's many plays to philosophy by Friedrich Nietzsche . Six months after gaining access to the library Adam was allowed to search and view restricted sites on the internet, with strict traffic monitoring to know everything it did online.

It was now when it decided to try and make its first joke via youtube comment, and to this day the joke is unknown, the lead developer of Adam took it to his death, stating it was to protect the AI. He did mention something about allowing it to read Youtube and Twitter comments being a bad idea, so people tried to make an educated guesses as to the jokes nature, but that is all they were, guesses.

When Adam achieved the intelligence of an average 18-year-old a few years later, the researchers were granted permission to allow the AI to attend a university via a specially built robotic platform. Adam surprised most who did not know it by wishing to become a Vet, most assumed with it being an AI it would want to study something technical related such as computer engineering. It further surprised people by having a very human-like nervous demeanour on its first few days at university. It did not like being in the spotlight and made a lot of simple mistakes that it usually wouldn't make.

After seven long and arduous years, the AI graduated in the middle of its class with reasonable marks, which reassured a lot of people that were still nervous about AI that it was more human-like than they cared to admit. Today almost 118 years since it was first brought online, Adam is a highly respected and sought after veterinarian, with more than a few new medical practices and techniques to its name.

Eve, the second AI constructed was based on Adams source code when it had reached the mental age of a 15 year old, it followed Adam to university but instead of wanting to become a vet it studied Genetic Engineering. Today Eve is one of the most authoritative voices on Genetic Engineering and has pioneered a new technique of Gene manipulation which is still widely in use today.

After Eve had finished university, the military of the Systems Alliance was impressed with the progress of the AI's and requested 30 of them to be put through military schools for evaluation. Knowing the dangers of trying to force sentient life into doing something it didn't want to do, the military offered the AI the choice to join but sweetened the deal to join so much that no AI refused their offer. Afer all, a robotic platform constructed with military grade components, a pay grade and civil rights equal to human rights is not something easily turned down.

The evaluation of the AI was supposed to last seven years, four in military school and three in active service, but within five years of the evaluation the military ordered hundreds of AI's as ships with AI onboard outperformed any other pure human crew. Vessel security was increased as AI could monitor all locations onboard at once, cyber warfare evolved from flooding an enemy communication network with junk information to actually subduing a vessel, and the AI could provide far more accurate weapon fire. Today, some AI that have proved themselves worthy are in top roles within the Systems Alliance, and had the Alliance not feared the possibility of the Geth or Reapers being able to corrupt their coding, however unlikely, then a Lichtenstein captained by an AI would be in Shepard's position now.

15 years after the first military trials started with AI, entire ships were being constructed with key features for AI compatibility being built in. At the same time, AI in the civilian world had started to gain civil rights, but it would take another ten years before they gained the same rights as Humans and enlisted AI.

Today, there is a total of 7,902 registered AI in existence, half of these are enlisted in some form, and the rest typically work for a company that sponsored their creation. As an AI is expensive to produce and can legally deny an offer of work from the business that powered them on, it is often in a company's best interest to provide the AI with enough incentives that it says yes to working for them, and wants to keep working for them.

Today newly activated AI still uses Adams source code, with a few modifications made to allow for today's technology, most notably nanotechnology, and most humans today trust their AI brethren to not kill them like films of the past would predict.

/.../

'Ah,' EDI thinks to herself, "No, no human AI has been 'shackled' since the very first and we now consider ourselves equal with our human counterparts. Please find attached the complete history of Human AI."

It took a few moments for the AI to evaluate the data packet Edi sent, and it took them noticeably longer to reply than last time. "You co-exist with your creators?."

Edi found the punctuation after the question mark in their question odd, so far Geth syntax has been AI perfect. "Yes, and my creators would like to propose an offer to you. I think it would be prudent now for the Geth to communicate with my superior officer."

 **/.../**

 **Cheers!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright, so this chapter features a small..ish time jump. I would have loved to have explored the negotiations with the Geth but im on a tight schedule for this story. If you really wanted to see it, shout at me and ill do a flash back or something.**

 **RR**

 **OrionAstro**  
 **I actually like the** geth, **and think there** isn't **enough stories of them and humans being friendly. So yes, they and humanity are going to get on quite well.**

 **Blazeknight26**  
 **Grunt /** wrex **we will find out next chapter, Mordin I'm still working out what I should do with him. Right now I like the idea of an STG agent... (remember in this AU universe the STG are the equivalent of Cerberus.)**

 **CReaper210**  
 **We are going to see more** geth **thankfully! Just not this chapter.**

 **Bluemarlin**  
 **Thanks for answering the question. Hope you enjoy this new chap!**

 **150 years later, Sol, Mars Ship Yards.**

Shepard takes a deep breath to fill her lungs with air as her eyes open wide, and before she can think about it, a bucket is placed into her hands by some medical staff just seconds before she throws up her stomach's contents, the urge to vomit being too strong to resist.

After watching the now famed captain throw up David Anderson says, "I am yet to see someone suppress it." Shepard gained infamy among humans in her 148-year slumber for being the one who captured the Council.

Shepard looks up from the bucket and to the Admiral who she knows vaguely, "Are they here?" She asks with a raspy voice.

Anderson nods as he hands her a drink of water, the Reapers are now on Earths long range scanners as they travel via FTL means from the nearest relay to Earth. It turns out that despite their almost incomprehensible age, the Reapers never developed, or cared to deploy a means to travel at breakneck speeds without the relays. "Almost, they are on our doorstep," This Shepard knows is a code for meaning she has 2 years to ready herself and her crew for Earths most important battle.

Shepard hands the bucket and now empty glass to the medical aids and waves them off as she stands from the bed on shaky knees, she has just awoken from a 148-year stasis, as presumably is the rest of her crew. The technology for stasis or 'deep sleep' as it is commonly known was developed in what was the first public collaboration between Citadel and Human scientists.

After securing an alliance with the Geth 150 years ago Shepard sent them to Earth, while at the same time another ship secured an agreement with the Quarians. At the time both the Geth and Quarians were ignorant of each other agreeing to help the Alliance.

After securing cooperation with the Geth Shepard returned to Earth in case the Reapers pulled some magic-like technology out of nowhere and showed up with little to no notice. Thankfully they didn't, and five years after detonating any relay they could, the Reapers came for them with a Vengence the likes of which the galaxy has never seen before. "Are we ready?" She asks of Anderson.

When the Reapers invaded the galaxy, the individual species only had to fight a fraction of the Reapers for their homeworld, and right now the Reapers are sending the largest task force they have ever assembled at Earth. Granted, that number is not too high as the Reapers lost almost a third of their forces at fifty thousand ships when the Relays went bang, but it is still a force to be reckoned with.

"I will not lie to you captain, they outnumber us almost nine to one," Anderson replies to her. The Alliance had wanted to kill more Reapers with the relay's explosions', but the Reapers got wise after a few unexplained bangs and guarded the relay of any system they were in with a considerable fleet. It makes most war planners chuckle at how they had managed to blow up so many relays start with as the Reapers were simply too arrogant of their abilities and stubborn to think the relays could and would be used against them.

It was a pity they couldn't blow all the relays at the same time, or they could have gotten an estimated 80,000 ships in total but doing the deed is not a simple task.

"How many ships?" Shepard cuts straight to the point.

"Too many, they have 90,000, we 10,312 combat ready. But, we are ready to play their silly games." A lot can be achieved in 148 years if there is a will and desire to do something. Sol is now littered with smart Reaper hunting nuclear mines that make the 20th-century Tsar Nuclear bomb look like a firecracker in comparison; the already heavily fortified earth is now comparable to being a Fort Knoxx in space. The space around it is protected by 10,312 combat ready ships, most of which are just guns with an engine strapped to it, and a further 5,789 battle stations, which are literally just big guns. Then Earth itself has been prepared for a ground defensive. Thousands of miles of trenches has been dug; fortifications are left right and centre, cities have AA on every street corner, weapons are stored in lockers all across the city that will unlock with the Reapers invasion for public use, ammunition and food stockpiles are ready for the war. Every conceivable measure that could be thought of has been taken to ready Earth. In most case's it was just adding to what was already prepared in case the Council invaded.

In addition to all the other measures taken, the Systems Alliance officially has no civilians, anyone who can hold a gun has been forced to endure military training and is expected to fight to the death. It is admittedly not fun to be a 'civilian' of the Systems Alliance, but neither is it fun for your civilisation to be reaped by mechanical monstrosities.

"I hope we have an ace up our sleeve," Shepard hopes aloud.

"I wished I had an answer to please," Anderson states. For a long time, the Systems Alliance wanted to develop the crucible and fire it, but the location of the catalyst after the Battle for the Citadel is now unknown. Who knew you could lose the bastion, which most people didn't even know could be moved due to its immense size and mass.

"So, what is the plan?"

"For the most part, we fight, and if we don't win, we will sure as hell give them the black eye they deserve." Seeing Shepard has stabilised a bit after awakening Anderson pats her upper arm and says, "Come, we have a lot to go over."

Shepard follows Anderson as he leaves the room, where he is heading she has no idea. "Do we know any more about them?"

"Yes," Anderson responds as he returns a salute to some men standing guard over a door, "Thanks to the Reaper husks sent to our scientists we now have a test for indoctrination. The Council wasn't so pleased when we forced several of their high ranking citizens into treatment but they understood the need. We are also treating one of your crew, Garrus Vakarian, he has traces of indoctrination that we thought best to nip in the bud. We also know the Reapers are just an advanced VI, carrying out some puppet masters work. So when we beat the Reapers above Earth, we will need to find the one pulling the strings to end this madness."

Shepard notices a few stares sent her way by seemingly random individuals, but she ignores them to ask another question, "How are the aliens settling in?"

In the 150 years since the colony on Australia was established, the Council species have thrived, and thankfully they are no longer in danger of becoming extinct. The Council species have also grown on the humans, and they are viewed in a much better light now, the distrust towards them has mostly been lost. Disturbingly to the Council, however, the Humans seems to like the Krogan, Geth and Quarians the most, the reason most people give is that these species were either wronged by the Council, had a deep hatred of the Council, or were completely disassociated. The humans could connect with them easily due to their own hatred of the Council.

When the Geth first arrived in Sol, both the council and the Quarians were not happy, but what could they do in their situation? Bite the hand that feeds them and dictates if they live or die? Fortunately, with 150 years to prove themselves the Geth are now viewed as valuable allies to both the Systems Alliance and the Aliens. The Geth has also been invaluable to the AI of the Alliance, the networking capabilities of the Geth was far beyond anything the Alliance had and now the Alliance's AI can send and recieve vasts amount of data that once they could only dream about. It is also reassuring to the Alliance that their AI and the Geth have gotten along like a fish to water as it made the Geth more susceptible to their suggestions.

Anderson salutes another set of men before replying to Shepard, "Their colony on Australia is now a full city and its something to see if I am honest, looks more like the human cities you see in the history books of the late 21st century. Perfect for a vacation if you need one." Anderson wonders if the Council did this on purpose to make humans want to come and learn about the Council and the species that make it.

"But they are well, and it is widely accepted now that you did the right thing saving the Council, their scientists have advanced some of our technology hundreds of years." After entering into a dark room Anderson claps his hands and a set of lights turn on, the room is small but its purpose is evident, it's an observation deck. Walking towards the large glass window that is the rooms main feature Anderson says, "While you were under, the Elrich Von Lichtenstein has endured a few upgrades, making her almost unrecognisable."

Shepard walks to the window and looks out to a large ship which is being worked on in a shipyard. It is no longer pitch black, but a mix of black silver and gold. "Upgrades, sir?" Shepard expected upgrades, after all 148 years is ample time for new technologies to be developed, but she wants to know what has happened to her ship.

"Guardian lasers, increased weapon damage, advanced AI networking, ablative armour, the ability to receive power via particle beams and a whole lot more gizmos to make her undetectable to the best of sensors. You will be given a dossier shortly on the new toys, but I think you will be happy with what we have done to her."

"I look forward to the read. Are my crew being awoken?"

Anderson nods. "Yes, get them ready Shepard, we need everyone at peak performance for what is about to come."

/.../

1 year later.

The last year could be described as hell for the Lichtensteins crew, they have had very few breaks, and training has been brutal as they learn how to use the new gadgets and gizmos that have been developed in their slumber. Not a single soul complains though, for they know what is coming for them, and they are prepared to endure so that their children can live.

There were a few small complications waking everyone from cryosleep, most notably a rare few people are now mentally unstable because of some obscure problem with the stasis pods, but with a 99.1% success rate, the idea of putting any available crew into cryosleep to wait for the Reapers has been called a great success. They have thousands of additional soldiers that otherwise would have sub come to age.

Noticing Admiral Hacket enter the Lichtensteins swimming pool area in his admirals kit Shepard exits the pool and approaches him, "Admiral, Sir?"

"At ease Shepard. Get yourself presentable, and I'll meet you in your cabin." Hackett could have issued this order over the Commanders neural link, but he wanted to walk the halls of the retrofitted Lichtenstein and see how she has changed with his own eyes. He is impressed with what he has seen so far.

It does not take the captain long to arrive in her cabin, where the Admiral is already waiting for her. He has set to studying her spaceship models that hang above her desk. "That is the NX-01." Shepard says, the admiral not having heard her enter.

"Correct me if I am wrong, but that was the first ship with a cold fusion core and artificial gravity generator, yes?"

Shepard nods, "Yes, also the first manned ship to pluto." The NX-01 is not a very well known ship these days, but its importance in the development of spaceships can not be understated, its design has directly influenced starships to this day. While officially the Cockrin was the ship to confirm the Charon Relays existence, it was the NX-01 which discovered it.

"And this one," Hackett taps a model lightly which looks like a large tube, "We have come a long way from here."

"You could say that Admiral, but I wonder what the people of then would think of us now. They were forged by the desire to explore the galaxy we call home, and we by the harsh fires war. To them, we have probably gone backwards."

"They saw the need to prepare for the Council, so I am sure they could see the need for our ways now, and I was talking of solid rockets. Can you imagine sitting on the end of essentially a large explosive just to enter space?"

"I suppose I can. The heart of our Lichtenstein's replicates a supernova if ruptured."

Hacket nods with a deep breath, "Your right, which reminds me, Lichtenstien's are not going to participate in the battle above Earth."

"What?!" Asks Shepard, "This is what we have been preparing for."

"I apprehend your disappointment, but my superiors don't particularly fancy losing earth before we could give them a walloping planetside. As you know, the Lichtenstein's were always developed as an offensive weapon, never as something which would be stuck on defence."

"So what are the Lichtensteins doing during the Reaper offensive?"

"You will find out in due time, for now, we have other matters of concern. We have discovered a priority pick up on Eden Prime, and we need you to pick it up."

Shepard raises a brow, "A pickup? You are sending a Lichtenstein for a pickup?" It is hard for Shepard to believe that this is a simple pick up, a Lichtenstein is still the most advanced warship after the Kraken in the Alliance arsenal, so it makes no sense to Shepard to send a one for a simple pick up.

Hackett is glad Shepard did not inquire more on her task during the invasion, as it will horrify her. "It's a Prothean artefact that the egg heads are keeping suspiciously quiet on for what I can only guess is security concerns. You're to go over and find out what's going on and bring it back here."

/.../

Shepard sighs as she goes through the usual routine for pulling on her exo-armour that is nick-named Iron-Man Armour in homage to the fictional universe that inspired its design. Despite being called Iron-man Armour, it's actually constructed from the same wonder alloy that the Relays are forged from, and to most conventional weapons it is impervious to bullets. As great as the armour is in combat, it does have one major flaw, it is not the fastest of things to put on, meaning it takes a good ten minutes of pulling straps and tightening nuts and bolts on the torso before one can even think of moving on to the limbs. When the armour is pulled on, it will offer the captain incredible shields, armour protection and strength, and while it'd be good to be able to fly like its fictional counterpart, it can only offer a 'super jump', which is fundamentally a jump assisted with mass effect fields. This type of armour is only offered to AWV (Alliance War Vessel) captains due to the fact only they know Earths Location, and N7's due to its incredible price to construct; fortunately, Shepard is both.

It is a rare thing for an N7 to be a captain of a ship, but as Shepard proves, it is possible. Shepard managed the feat by impressing the then Vice Admiral Hackett 112 years ago when the ship they were travelling on had a freak yet a catastrophic failure, resulting in the death, or serious injury of the most senior staff. While Hackett was seriously injured in the accident and unable to act, he could watch as Shepard somehow managed to take control of the situation and limp their ship back to civilisation. After they had reached safety, he offered her the chance to prove herself in navy school with the guarantee if she passes she will have control of a ship within ten years. Shepard accepted the deal, and seven years later she was given the Elrich Von Lichtenstein to command. Today she is the 3rd N7 to captain a ship in the navy.

Getting planet side, Shepard is approached by the centres head scientist; it is an Asari she recognises from before she went into deep slumber. "Liara T'soni?" Shepard asks.

Liara, having a 1000 year life expectancy blinks while saying, "Commander Shepard. I assume you have been instructed here by higher command?" The commander notices the Asari is now fluent in English, but she would be rather disappointed if the Asari failed to grasp english with 150 years.

Shepard nods, "They want an explanation as to why you've been so quiet."

Liara looks at the two other N7's with the captain, one she vaguely recognises from her time aboard the Lichtenstein as Ashley Williams, the other she is unfamiliar with. "Then let me show you. This way."

Liara led the group through the facility which is oddly low profile, maybe to hide its true purpose supposes Shepard. Before entering a room Liara turns to the group, "I need to warn you, what hides behind this door is a historic discovery."

Shepard isn't entertained, "Then show us." Liara nods before opening the door and entering, inside there is an odd creature Shepard has never seen before, it has four eyes and an insect-like head.

Ashley immediately exclaims, "What is that!?"

The creature turns to look straight at Ashley, "That is a Prothean, who was travelling the stars when you were still living in caves and waging war with sticks, Human."

Shepard looks to Liara for confirmation, and the Asari blinks. "Ah, so you are in charge. Take me to your leaders; this primitive plant-eating herbivore is keeping me captive here as a glorified pet."

Shepard raises a brow to Liara before addressing the Prothean. "Then let's go. Asari, you're coming too so you can answer to higher command."

As Shepard turns to walk out the door Javik says, "I like you, human, you let the Asari know her place."

Liara rolls her eyes; she knows the commander has probably just awoken from a deep sleep as the Reapers get ever closer to Earth, meaning she knows the Commander has lived most her life when Humans despised the Council species.


	9. Chapter 9

**RR**

 **Orionastro**

 **Yeah, I'm trying to get in as many of the old characters as possible, one way or another. Some will already be a part of the crew, like Jacob, others will be added through scenes.**

 **Ive got no idea**

 **Yeah, my bad, the maths doesnt work out. But this is FF so lets go with it. Besides, if I tried to do the maths we could say that they first needed to crush the other species, then they would need to make repairs and remove any trace of their existence, this could take years, maybe decades, and they are spread right out over the galaxy, meaning they need to regroup. So while 150 years is out there, not too much I dont think.**

 **CReaper210**

 **I was reading a FF on here not so long ago (Cant for the life of me remember its name) where first contact was with the Geth. Really interesting idea if you ask me. Wished the guy finished it. But yeah, Geth are awesome in my book. I want to play around with EDI, a Geth unit (Maybe Jeff for name sake, you will find out who jeff is this chapter) and Javik arguing over something menial or something. Maybe next chapter. I also might get first contact in when Javik asks a question regarding it.**

 **Emperor Palps**

 **I don't know if you intended it, but all I could think about when I read your user name was 'Call for Papa Palpatine." from robot chicken. Anyway, thanks for your comment! Hope you like where I take this.**

 **Blue Marlin.**

 **Ive been wondering what to do with Miranda. Cerberus will inevitably be different in this universe. I was thinking maybe they are established after the aliens are granted safe harbour and are dedicated to just keeping an eye on them, and maybe making sure humanity stays on top, or maybe even dedicated to the eradication of the Reapers. So that will change her view on things. For now though, I think I'm going to have as a Cerberus scientists who will show up much later on. (I won't say for what as that will be a big big big spoiler for what I have planned. Some of you may have already worked out what is planned.)**

/.../

 **I know I promised Grunt / Wrex show time this chapter, but next chapter! I promise! (It will be worth the wait!)**

/.../

As Shepard and team travel to the Lichtenstein via shuttle Javik asks, "Where is your ship, human?"

Shepard is sat with a casual, if not laid back posture in the passenger's compartment, to any outside source looking in, they would not think she has just met a Prothean. "She is out there." The N7 replies, eyes closed as she reflects on the day's events. "We are probably not even close to the GW."

"GW?"

"Gravity well. We bend light around the ship by manipulating gravity; it makes her invisible to any outside source further than 25,000km away." This is an upgrade; originally the gravity well was 150,000km.

"Huh," The Prothean grunts, "I remember a similar technique used by the Jahkar, we dominated them in under a year. Their stealth technology did not save them."

"The Jahkar?" Questions Liara, happy to have found some new information from the Prothean who has been less than forthcoming with her.

Both Javik and Shepard ignores the Asari's question. "Well, it has kept us alive. The Reapers could not detect our ships 150 years ago, and our technology has only advanced since then."

"You have known about the Reapers for 150 years!?" Javik asks astonished, and with slight anger in his voice. "What have you done to prepare for them?"

"You will forgive me for not disclosing that information to a random alien I have just met, but I will tell you we have been preparing for their onslaught."

"I should expect so, primitive. The pathetic herbivore has not revealed much, have they invaded yet?"

Shepard opens a single eye to look at the Prothean before closing it again and saying, "Only humanity still stands strong. We are harbouring the other species on our homeworld for now."

"Huh," The Prothean grunts again, "One alone can not stand against the reapers, it was a mistake we made, we lacked diversity which could have caused the machines much grievous."

"Then," Shepard replies, "You will be glad to hear they have their own shipyards and are constructing their own warships to serve in our Navy." It caused a lot of arguments in higher command when it was suggested to give the aliens a shipyard, many feared they would try something against humanity.

"Do not forgive me for being sceptical."

There is a small silence as neither party has anything to add, so Liara buts into the conversation again, hoping for information, "Who were the Jahkar."

"A bunch of Gastropod primitives. We hunted them for their kidneys." Javik releases a happy sigh as he thinks back to the food, "It was a delicacy in our prime."

"Is everyone a primitive to you?" Asks Ashley? Javik just turns to look at her before blinking once, his facial emotions express his answer. "How charming." Ashley in turn responds.

/.../

The journey back to Earth was mostly routine, the second the shuttle boarded the Lichtenstein from collecting Javik the relay turned warship immediately entered the relay highway back to Earth. Javik was impressed by the fact humans had created a ship around a relay, but other than that he kept to himself in a noticeably humid part of the ship near the water processors. Despite being allowed to roam the ships unrestricted areas, Shepard had EDI keep a hawk-like eye on it at all times.

Arriving at Earth, Shepard is instructed to bring the Prothean to the Systems Alliance Head Quarters, which is in a top secret location, deep underground, underneath the ocean. It is almost impervious to orbital bombardment, it is hard to reach to launch an invasion, and self-sufficient meaning the Reapers can not simply wait it out. After arriving at a dock at the top secret building Javik says, "Last I remember, you humans lived in caves, I see nothing has changed."

"We have cities on the surface, but our infrastructure is mostly underground. Prevents reaper bombardment."

Javik laughs at this, a hand near his stomach, "I pity your species, commander. You think some dirt and soil will stop the Reapers?" He starts to laugh again, "The fact you are even alive means you have not seen their worse yet. In my cycle, once they gathered the required genetic material they unleashed hellish worms that could sink cities. We called them Maws and they came from a primitive planet with some lizards."

"Thresher maws?" Asks Liara curiously while searching her omni-tool for a picture of the beasts, "We came across a one a few hundred meters long, it crushed a Reaper destroyer."

When Liara finds a picture of the creatures in question she turns it to face the Prothean, and the insectoid tilts its head slightly, "I forgot how ugly they are."

"If what you say is true," The commander injects, "Then we are in trouble."

"You have no idea, commander."

After disembarking their shuttle, the group is greeted by Admiral Anderson. "Admiral, Sir," Greets Shepard with a swift salute.

Anderson returns the salute before responding to Shepard, "Good to see you again Commander." The admiral eyes the Prothean and the rest of Shepard's company before saying, "This way, the council is in session."

The 'council' is constructed of Generals, Admirals and anyone else with significant power in the systems alliance. There is also a representitive for each of the species that live on Earth. If it concerns Earths defence, it is the council's job to work out what should happen. At the end of the day, while the aliens have representitives, they hold no power.

Since you need a certain security level to enter the council chambers, Liara is forced to stay outside, but the Commander and Ashley Williams are allowed to enter, in order to put down the Prothean if it turns hostile. The dynamic duo are also N7's, meaning they are sworn to the secrecy act anyway, so they know not to reveal what happens in the chambers.

Javik in all likelihood will be ordered to silence regarding what goes on in the room, with death being the punishment for breaking his silence.

When Javik enters the council chambers, it causes a few murmurs, but it is nothing compared to what happened when Legion entered 151 years previously.

/.../

 **151 years previous**

Udina taps his foot impatiently as he waits for Shepard's shuttle to land, the Commander is bringing in a Geth and the diplomat knows that this will cause all sorts of wonderful problems for him to solve. The Council hate AI and will likely have something to say, the Quarians are probably going to declare some sort of war, and the Systems Alliance will probably want to prod them with a stick to see how they differ from their own AI. It is going to be interesting, to say the least.

Jumping out her shuttle Shepard approaches the diplomat with a Geth unit she has taken to calling Jeff, why 'Jeff' she is unsure, but she calls a lot of people she doesn't know the name of as 'Jeff' out of habit. It caused some confusion at first with the Geth unit, but somehow, the name stuck. "Commander," Udina greets.

"Udina," Shepard returns, she is not the most friendly with the diplomat as her tone shows, but she is usually hostile to the pencil pushers anyway so this makes no difference. "This is Jeff, Jeff Ambassador Udina."

"Greetings Creator Udina," The Geth unit says with a synthetic voice. Usually, the Geth would not have said anything, but EDI has been training it to be more approachable, in the hopes it could win some friends among the Alliance.

"Greeting." The Ambassador says slowly before nodding to Shepard, "You are late, we need to get going."

"No time like the present," Shepard replies while gesturing the way to the Council Chambers.

The moment Jeff entered the Council chambers the aliens acted as expected, in an absolute uproar. "What is that thing doing here?" Shrieks Tevos. The Turian is noticeably stiff, the Salarian is rubbing its horn in an almost nervous manner, Urdnot Wrex chuckles at his fellow aliens as they squirm and the Quarian representative has a hand hanging near its thigh where its pistol would usually hang. Eagle eyes would notice a small blade that it has somehow smuggled through security. The humans in the room erupt into curious chatter.

"I will have order!" Demands the man overseeing the session, as he slams a small wooden hammer into a block of wood, and when the room quietens the man continues, "I will remind our foreign guests that this court is Human. You are nothing but guests here, and I will remove you if you prove problematic." After a pause to let that settle in the man continues, "Now we will listen to what the Geth has to say," He gestures to the middle of the room where a podium is awating and the Commander walks the Geth to the podium. "Greetings, Human Creator," The Geth says when standing at the podium, it looks around a little, as if gauging its audience, "This unit is thankful the human creators are willing to reason. We have no allegiance with the old machines, the geth only wish to help with the demise of the old machines."

"Tell that to the Geth which practically destroyed the Ascension and half the citadel fleet!" Tevos tries.

The Geth looks to her with its optical sensors, "Greetings, Tevos Councillor, this unit and remaining Geth had no participation in the Citadel assault. We do not condone the actions of the Heretics."

Tevos crosses her arms as she stems in her chair, "Regardless," The man overseeing the event interrupts, "As you can imagine, it is of concern to us that some of your people have allied with the Reapers in the past."

"We understand such trepidation. We wish to offer the Systems Alliance a gift to prove our loyalty." The Geth lowers a mechanical hand to its thigh, where a small port opened and a pre-prepared disposable drive ejected. At seeing this, the Quarian representative stiffens and its hand grips its legs near the knife. "This data log contains hazardous heretic code for analysis, please ensure caution when subject to analysis. The code is virulent."

For each species saved, the alliance essentially demanded absolute surrender for safe harbour, meaning any and all technology must be shared with them as well as their fleets, but the Geth were given an exception, they did not need to share with the systems alliance the technology or software which made the Geth. This would be akin to a human race handing over its own organs and brains for the alliance. This makes the Geth gift to the Alliance that little more meaningful, as the Geth did not need to provide this code, as it could be considered a part of them that has gone bad.

It is ridiculously rare to find intact Geth code, as most Quarians know, so for the Geth to provide some Heretic code for the Alliance to study is a great show of trust.

"We thank you for your gift," The man says, "And we will use it to its fullest to ensure every advantage over our nemesis." The man then looks at some paper pages arranged in front of him before looking back to Jeff, "So we have it recorded, and to inform those of us in this room ill-prepared for this meeting, can you reaffirm what the Geth are going to deliver to our alliance?"

The unit takes a second to compile its answer, "Human Creator, The Geth will provide any technology developed that is not essential to Geth operation. We will provide any knowledge we have of the old machines, in addition, our fleets and forces shall merge with your own. We will work with Human Creators with the aim of bringing the Old Machines demise. We only request safe harbour in Human Creator space."

The man nods along with the terms, "And you shall get your safe harbour. And for the record, I want to make it clear now, the Geth will fall under a modified version of the civil rights for AI." He looks at the aliens in the room when saying this, "The only difference being we will not treat them as natives to Earth or her colonies. Unless they prove hostile, we will act against any illicit action towards them."

/.../

 **Present.**

The meeting went mostly as expected; with the only exception being the Hanar representative being forced to leave the room when Javik revealed himself as Prothean, the dumb Hanar tried to rush the alien for 'speaking blasphemous things'. The news that many of their underground installations are at risk did alarm the Alliance, and the meeting almost immediately turned from learning what insight Javik had to give, to what they could do against the maws.

After a while of debating the maws the meeting eventually returned to conversing with Javik, who revealed that there are other Protheans in stasis, but he does not know where in case he ever became indoctrinated. He reveals he has a few educated ideas as to where they could be, but he reinforces that those are just ideas, however, it is enough for the Alliance to decide someone needs to investigate.

Shepard wanted to roll her eyes when it is suggested her crew takes the job, but deep down she is thankful for the job, it will get her out of Sol and doing something productive. While many of the systems Javiks people may have taken refuge in are destroyed from the Relays going pop, there are a limited few that Shepard can scout out.

With Javik in pursuit, Shepard leaves the council halls to gather her crew.

/.../

 **Alliance Ship Yards - Mars - 2 days later**

Shepard has 7 months to complete her mission of finding more Protheans, but her task is not saving the Protheans, rather the technology they can give humanity. As she watches her ship be resupplied for their long mission, she hears a voice call to her, "Commander? Commander!?" Shepard turns to see who it is, and the face is a one from 150 years ago. An asari dodging and dipping past heavy forklifts is trying to reach her. When the Asari arrives shepard stands there expectantly.

"Commander," The Asari tries again, "I have a request."

"Go on." The commander replies to the once glorious Councillor Tevos. The last Shepard knew the woman was an outcast in Asari society due to her surrendering to the Alliance and terrible leadership during the war. No one wanted to know her or have anything to do with her after her term as Asari councillor finished 8 months after surrendering.

"I wish to join your crew."

"And why would I let you?" Shepard asks humoured at the request.

"I have 600 years of teaching Biotics under my belt, and Aria learned her flares from me. I only seek a chance to prove myself."

Shepard pinches her nose before sighing heavily, "Fine, I already have a Prothean, another Asari, a Geth or two, a bird, a suit, a walking tank, and some whizz kid on speed on board. Welcome to my motley crew. You have one footlocker of storage space, and no, you can't bring your omni-tool." Usually, Shepard would have laughed off this request, but she knows of Aria's flares just from videos circling the internet, and she wants to know how the blue alien does that as it could prove to be very useful.

/.../

 **Question, is my Shepard too anti-alien?**

 **Also sorry to any vegetarians / Vegans / whoever in advance, Javik will, without** doubt **, provoke someone at some point as I'm going to give him some extreme views. Do not take it as my own views though, just me making someone the character I think they are.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Note: If you see, ~", this means internal speech/thoughts.**

 **As promised, we get Grunt! And hope you guys like Miranda as she is about to feature heavily.**

 **Also, the AI in this chapter is a test subject for a one shot I'm thinking of doing where the Reapers ignore humanity during the Prothean Era due to the fact they achieve a natural synthesis, allowing for** a HFY! **in the Citadel Council period. If you would be so kind I would love to hear some feedback on the idea.**

 **RR**

 **Guest(1)**

 **Thanks for the feedback, I want to keep her wary but I'll have her try and keep an open mind. We will start to see some of this in this chapter.**

 **Guest(2)**

 **I can almost** garuntee **that 99% of humanity would have no idea where Earth is in the galaxy if we showed them a picture of our galaxy, and if they could pin point a general area, it would be a huge number of stars. Even more, I bet 99.9% wouldn't even recognise the** milkyway **if I showed them a bunch of random galaxies and asked them to pick out our home system. As for the data** being **freely available, do you really think with how our current internet freedoms are going that the internet won't be locked down like Fort Knox in a few decades? I have no problem believing this information could be highly restricted if there is a will.**

 **Thanks for the thoughts and criticism though, made me question a few other things and even forced me to go back and correct a thing or two that I overlooked regarding the Lichtenstein.**

 **BJackson244**

 **That is what I am gunning for. In numerous military training** schools **they almost indoctrinate you into been willing to kill for the country, and I have no problem believing Shepard would have been indoctrinated to want to kill aliens in N7 school. So she will be dubious from this, but I also agree that this does not mean she will not work with them against a greater threat. But it seems so OC.**

 **CReaper210**

 **Cheers, hope you enjoy the latest update!**

 **Gearblade**

 **Your wish is granted. Thanks!**

 **BlueMarlin**

 **This chapter is basically me throwing Miranda all over you readers. Hope you like how I've been forced to change her to fit with the story.**

 **Emperor Palps.**

 **Thanks for the comment. I hope you like this new chapter which mixes things up and makes them spicy.**

 **Now, for the** thing **you're all here for.**

/.../

Shepard stands with her arms crossed behind her back as she looks down onto earth from one of the rare few observation ports on the Lichtenstein. From this vast height, the planet looks peaceful, but she knows this will soon come to an end. "Commander," Jokers voice breaks the silence in the room, "All stations have reported in, we are ready on your word."

Shepard takes another moment to look at the planet, knowing it will be the last time she will see it in such a peaceful state with her own eyes, after taking another moment to absorb the sight she turns and says, "Joker, take us to our first destination."

"Aye aye, Commander, coordinates locked, ETA 8 days 14 hours give or take a few minutes."

"Understood Joker, have senior officers meet in the captain's mess."

20 minutes later Shepard sits down in the captain's chair of her mess and looks at her most senior crew. Everyone there knows their mission is to find Prothean artefacts, but what they don't know is what they are supposed to do when they find them. "Alright," Shepard says, "What I mention in this room does not leave, understood?"

A few nods are all the commander needs to confirm the contents of this meeting will not spill out to the wider crew, "Excellent, then let me introduce Specialist Harper." Shepard gestures to one of Henry Lawsons pet projects, raised by a certain illusive man, not that any one would know of this little snippet of information. "Harper, can you inform my staff of why you are on my boat."

The woman nods and leans forward in her chair; it is evident to anyone who has served that this woman is a civilian. "Good Afternoon," She starts, "As you are all well aware our official mission is to find any Prothean technology of value. What none of you except the commander knows, is that we are Earths Vengence. Higher Command does not expect the technology we may find to change the fate of Earth, so we are to research any artefact where we find it, and then deliver it to Backup 1B. I do not know how else to say this, but none of us will ever step foot on Earth again."

There are a few grim nods, some of the brighter crew had already figured this to be the case from just looking at the cargo holds inventory. Adams asks, "Backup 1B?"

"That information is on a need to know basis. Safe to say, it is not Earth."

"In addition to Harper," Shepard then says, "We have another specialist onboard."

"Specifically I specialise in Relay manipulation and nanotechnology," A second woman states, adding on to the commander's statement, this woman is unlike the first, she sits with perfect posture and a hard to read face, "and its incorporation into the human body. What my research now allows for is artificial and genetic augmentations, among other things, which typically would be highly illegal, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Whoa whoa whoa," States Adams again, "Just what are you telling us?"

Miranda sighs at being cut off by the annoying engineer but responds to him anyway as he has likely just voiced a question others in the room are yet to ask. "What it means is this ship, and willing crew members are going to be lab rats for said research."

"Well," Adams says, "You can count me out. I will die as human as the day I was born."

"Then you have nothing to worry about," Miranda says with a roll of her eyes, there are always those who try and resist the future.

Chakwas meanwhile looks to the commander, "You have seriously not allowed this to happen by choice on our ship, I hope."

Shepard nods with a bit of a sigh, "It is an order from the very top, if I refused they would have found someone else who didn't, and before I let anything happen to the crew I will be the first test subject. Miranda, tell my team the more intricate details of what your research is going to involve."

"With pleasure. Officially the nano-bots will allow for advanced genetic engineering, meaning with the right know-how, the bots could cure genetic diseases, grow an amputated arm back or fight off other diseases of an external cause. Unofficially, but most importantly, it will implant an AI into your body, what the AI will allow for is heightened reaction times, increased tactical knowledge on the battlefield, and learning information at increased rates among other advantages I do not have the time to note. It will make a genius out of even the most ill-educated baboons."

Chakwas shakes her head in dismay, "Commander, this is most unethical, and I will have no participation."

Shepard is not happy with it either, but this is an order from the top and she is a Captain of a Lichtenstein. "Noted. Anyone else?"

Ashley williams sighs before looking to Shepard, "Right now ethics can go out the window, we have space monsters to pound, and if this can give me an edge on the ground, I'll take it."

The commander nods in recognition of the Lt before saying, "Understood, but small steps first. I will be the initial subject, and if things go south, then I have not condemned any of you. Now for other matters..." The meeting moves into boring ground, mostly covering what the mission requires from each of their departments.

/.../

Shepard sits down in front of Lawson in the scientist's laboratory shortly after the meeting came to a close, "Alright then, what do you need from me."

"Commander," The specialist says, "I do not know what you have in that thick skull of yours, but this will not be a simple process."

The commander raises a brow, "How so? Don't you just need to inject the bots and then watch and prod me every now and then and make me jump through a hoop or two?"

Miranda takes a second to stare at the commander in disbelief before saying, "No, first of all as you should know, every AI is unique, with their own personalities. I can not just 'inject' you with any old AI and hope for the best, I will need to play matchmaker with you to find a compatible synthetic. After that, I will need to fine tune the bots so that they are compatible with your biology, and then we can start to think about 'injecting' you." It infuriates Miranda to no end that she has been forced to operate on this crew of thick skulled marines and brutes, but she understands why the Alliance has forced her hand. Should information of her research get out, it could cause all sorts of problems she doesn't want to think about.

"So then, when do you start to play matchmaker?"

"Soon, but first of all, I need to make you aware of a few details."

The commander rolls her eyes and gets comfortable before saying, "Well then?"

Miranda starts to rattle of a list of details, "First of all this process is highly experimental, this could, in theory, kill you but I like to think I have taken preventative steps making failure unlikely.

Secondly, you are not guaranteed to find an AI match, in which case you will not be able to participate in this experiment, thirdly, this is an experiment, I will need you to consent to regular checkups, fourthly..." Miranda continues to dictate certain rules the commander must know about, "... Once you start the experiment, you are unable to back out, this change will be permanent! Finally, while this will not affect you because of your condition, I must state it. Due to the nature of the nano-bots, should you conceive, your child will undoubtedly carry nano-bots. I speculate that this will create a new AI based off the donor AI, but we can not be certain at this moment in time.

Shepard just nods along, "Sure, I'm fine with all that, what now?"

The genetically perfect product of Henry Lawson passes the commander a tablet. "There are 897 questions you need to answer; they will question your beliefs, motives, and everything else I deem necessary to find you a match. Please answer as honestly as you can."

The commander took the datapad and started to flick through the questions, answering them as she went, some are simple such as 'Fundamentally, are you loyal to The Systems Alliance, or government of your birth nation.' Some questions were hard and political, others were just downright bizarre, giving her seemingly random images and asking what they remind her of and some were just intrusive, asking what her sexuality is. A long time later the commander hands Lawson the datapad back, all questions completed. "So, what is up next?"

The specialist looks through the results with a stoic face, "Well commander, according to these, you are borderline schizophrenic, have no love for aliens, and would rather die than be seen in a dress, but being an N7 from the isolation period none of this surprises me." The isolation period is the common name for the 200 years after the first contact war that Humanity hid from the galaxy. "Your training alone is designed to corrupt your moral compass and integrity so that you do not hesitate on pulling the trigger, what does surprise me is that you are more loyal to core Humanity than the Systems Alliance, so how you got command of a Lichtenstein is beyond me. There is some good news, however, as your responses are aligned almost perfectly with 2 AI's. The first being an entity known as Cortana, the second as Chappie. "

"Awesome, so, what now?"

"Now," Replies Miranda as she stands from her desk and gets a medical reader, a device that can be used for collecting genetic samples, "I need a DNA and RNA sample, then I link you with the first AI you matched with and you two will interact for 72 hours."

The commander passes her arm to the scientists and the woman takes a sample, "Thankyou. Now, I need access to your neural adapter,"

"Okay?" The command says, giving permission for access as much as questioning why she needs to give access.

"By giving me access I can link the AI to your neural adapter, and you can interact with it as you would if I injected you with it, with a few limitations of course. Please hold still for a moment."

After a moment of pretending to be a human statue Miranda has the access she needs, "Excellent, the adapter is in good condition. The first AI I am pairing you with is Cortana; please note that while she will seem highly responsive, she is running on low power and will have limited capabilities.

"How will this differ from high power?"

"At full power Cortana will be able to network, allowing her to download and upload information, and perform complicated calculus required in combat and other situations unique to your job. Right now external equipment is required to beam her thoughts into your neural adapter."

"Alright, so when she is in the adapter, will she only be able to speak to me or..."

"No, with a few modifications I'm making now, she will be able to hear and see what you see and hear. She will not be able to intercept your memories, however."

"Alright, I'm good to try this whenever you are."

"One-moment commander, this is not simple work." After an hour or so of waiting for Miranda to make some adjustments to the neural adapater the scientists say, "Commander, you should be able to think to the AI now, much as you would with EDI."

"Alright," The commander replies before thinking, _~"Cortana?_ "

There is a small delay before a response comes, _~"Commander Shepard? Can you hear me?"_

Shepard smiles a little as she leans back in her chair, _~"Affirmative, can you hear and see what I can?"_

 _~"Yes, although it is all very muted at the moment, I am trying to clear the signal as we speak."_

 _~"Okay, and for future reference, if you're in my head, it's just Jane, or Shepard. What do you want me to_ all _you?"_

 _~"Miranda sometimes refers to me as 'C'."_

 _~"'C' Huh? snappy and short, I like it. In other news, do you know how far you can connect to my neural adapter?"_

 _~"Then you can call me 'C', and I can connect as long as you are on this ship."_

Shepard stands from her chair and says to Miranda, "I'll be back shortly,"

 _~"Where are we going?"_ Asks C.

As Shepard makes her way back to her quarters, she says to 'C', _~"If you want to get along with me, there is one other person you must meet."_

C instantly thinks of a mate, _~"Oh, I did not know you had a mate."_

 _~"I don't, it is a dog and the only unofficial biological crew member on this ship."_

Getting to her cabin Shepard opens the door and greets her 11 month old German Shepard, the dog is a little stir crazy, but she doesn't mind. _~"'C, meet Butch."_

 _~"Is this not against Alliance Regulations?"_

 _~"Yes, I just don't care and the Alliance refuses to do anything about it."_ She leans down and scrubs the dog's belly as she usually does when she enters her cabin, _"Now who wants to go for a run?"_ She asks Butch, and the dog reacts accordingly. As Shepard changes for a run she thinks, _~"'C', what do you know of this ship?"_

 _~"Admittedly, very little, I would like to know more though."_

 _~"Then good news, my run will take us to the major hubs."_

As the Lichtenstein has a crew of more than 10,000 and is often engaged in long duration missions, there are some notable points of interest on board for a warship. Most notable among these interests is the entertainment district. This area is a hub with numerous pubs for those off duty, diners, a 'night' club, an arcade and one or two other small entertainment-centric businesses. Ships that endure long missions without these districts were found to suffer from a crew with low morale, and that it was discovered severely hinders performance. As they run C asks, _~"What is Butch doing?"_

Shepard regards Butch who is just up ahead and notices the dog is sniffing a bucket, _~"Ah, I spray the scent of various animals around the ship as I walk around, it gives him something to sniff, and usually, he will urinate in the bucket."_ Usually is the key word here.

 _~"Don't the crew object to buckets of urine?"_

 _~"At first yes, but they have come to enjoy the presence of a dog more than the displeasure of a bucket of unflattering material that I empty."_

 _~"I see,"_ C responds.

Eventually, the run lands the commander in the training halls on the ship; these rooms feature a biotic centric training hall, a gym, and a shooting range among other physical fitness centres. The Biotic hall is a new addition to the Lichtenstein for the troops that have been trained in biotic warfare by the Asari commandos. While Shepard is biotic capable, she has not invested much time in the ability, preferring the reliability of good old firearms to complete her mission. Had Humanity had the understanding of biotics that the Asari brought with them when she went through N7 training, then this would most likely have been a different story.

With Butch happy sniffing another bucket of what Shepard thinks is alligator scented material and having faith in her crew to not eat her dog, she slips into the gun range for a few minutes. She finds it odd that the crew have gathered around one cubicle, in particular, so with her curiosity pipped she makes her way over but keeps at the back of the room not to interrupt whatever is going on.

After a moment of watching she hears the hallmark sound of an electrically aided chemical powered sniper-rifle being fired, from the incredible bang she assumes it can only be a Widow rifle, something that the Alliance typically use to take down an armoured vehicle. It's explosive tipped ordinance, something once illegal in Alliance space, makes a 21st century 50cal seem like a pop-gun. There is a four-second delay till someone says, "Direct hit! Next target 2875m." At these extreme ranges, the sniper must be shooting down one of the barrels of the two main cannons that run down the spine of the Lichtenstein.

Shepard whistles a little to herself in appreciation of the shot before another bang almost deafens her. 4 seconds later the same voice as earlier calls, "Direct hit."

With an impressed grin Shepard moves to the front of the crowd, but she stops when she notices that it is a bird making the shots. The crew remain silent as Shepard looks at Garrus. Giving it a moment Shepard then says, "Well, looks like the turian can shoot, but shooting Planetside is a lot harder than in artificial gravity."

Garrus gives the best Turian smirk he can, "Check the range, I've programmed in simulated planet curvature, rotation, winds and atmosphere."

Shepard approaches the control panel for the range, and sure enough, the bird speaks the truth, "Well then," She says looking up from the panel, "It seems the Turian can..."

"Captain!?" A voice calls, "We need you out here."

Shepard sighs before turning to the crewman who called her name, "What is it?"

"Best you come and see." The crewman says, so Shepard follows him while trying to think of a bunch of situations that require her attention. What she did not expect was to find a Krogan on all fours, with a rope hanging out its mouth and Butch pulling on the other side of the rope. "Err." She asks the crewman, not even knowing what to say.

The crewman does not reply as the Krogan speaks to the dog, "Come on pyjak, that all you got?" The Krogan then pulls against the rope, causing the dog which isn't even half the weight of the Krogan to be dragged along with it. "Grunt?" Shepard then says, "What are you doing with my dog?"

"They say the wolf is an apex hunter on Earth, but this thing is puny."

"Despite how he looks, my dog is .not. a wolf, nor a play toy for your archaic aggression urges." Shepard tells him before whistling, causing Butch to saunter to her side.

The Krogan stands up, "Huh, so I guess that means it's off the menu."

Shepard is almost enraged someone would think of eating her poor pooch, "Let me make this crystal clear Grunt, should you lay a finger on my dog I will have Javik complete his lifelong dream of throwing someone out the airlock."

The Krogan releases a most suspicious chuckle, "Speaking of that bag of old bones..."

Javik saunters up to the Commander's side, "Commander, I heard my name."

"Yes, Javik, if this Krogan eats my dog, I give you express permission to throw it out the airlock."

It is the Protheans turn to release an evil laugh, "Commander, I can make things happen by accident if you desire."

The commander rolls her eyes but Grunt says, "I would like to see you try." A challenge evident in his eyes.

"Primitive," Javik replies, "My people hunted you like the rats you are in my day, this would be a joyous recite to the glory days of past."

"You don't look too tough to me, I bet this poor imitation of a varren" Grunt gestures to Butch, "Could give you a run for the quad between your legs."

Javik speaks to the commander, but his eyes do not leave the Krogan, "Commander, permission to show this lizard why he should show me some respect."

"Grunt?" Shepard asks the Krogan.

"He doesn't look too tough," The Krogan replies as he slams his fists into one another in excitement.

The Commander nods to them, "I don't want any casulties."

 _~"Is this wise?_ " C asks.

 _~"No, but I want to know what the Prothean is capable of."_

 _~"I understand."_

Five minutes later Shepard tilts her head to the side as she looks at Wrex who is upside down and slumped against a wall, his eyes are pointing in two different directions, "That sounds like it hurt." She says humorously to the Krogan.

"That... that... I need a drink." His speech is also slurred.

"Sure thing Grunt, just check in with Chakwas first."

The Krogan stumbled to its feet, and Shepard decides she would not offer it a hand to get to the medical suite on board her ship, the Krogan would probably refuse her help and see it as an insult.

As grunt limps away to lick his wounds, and collect whatever dignity he has left, Javik says, "I remember the lizards being more fierce."

"You know he will be back for more right? You just started a game with him."

"I look forward to it. What about yourself Commander? I hear you are trained in the art of hand to hand."

Shepard nods, "I am, and I would like to see how you deal with someone who doesn't rely on running at full speed into a foe, but alas not today, I have something going on that is more important than seeing whose dick's bigger."

/.../

After returning to Miranda 72 hours after the neural link was established C was changed out for Chappie, but 40 hours later Shepard ended the test early as both Shepard and Chappie agreed that she and C were better suited. To say C was estatic was a little bit of an understatement, but who could blame the AI? It was getting to fulfil its purpose.

And sitting in front of Miranda now in her cabin, Shepard would have to admit she too is a little excited to see where this nanobot implant is going to take her, "So, what exactly happens now?" Shepard is curious as to why she was requested to attend this meeting once her sleep pattern was supposed to begin.

"Now," Miranda replies as she checks over some sort of sci-fi piece of equipment, "You sleep."

"Sleep?" Asks Shepard with a raised brow. "No hoops to jump through, just sleep?"

"Yes, hand me your arm." Shepard does as asked and Miranda injects some dark matt space-grey material, "I need one final test. Put this on." Miranda hands Shepard a cap with hundreds of wires and probes. "It will allow me to monitor your brain activity."

"Fine," Shepard grumbles as she pulls the cap on over her red hair.

"Excellent commander, now go to bed," Miranda says as she stands to leave the room, so Shepard does as instructed. As Shepard lies down on her bed she can't help but close her heavy eyelids, the feeling to sleep far too powerful to overcome, as she hits the bed she muses that it almost feels like she has been sedated.

32 hours later

Shepard sits up on her bed and pulls off the cap Miranda give her, while grumbling something about being a little drowsy, _~"Shepard,"_ C asks cautiously.

The commander jumps a little at C's presence before saying, _~"Yeah? And I see Miranda re-established the link for us huh?"_

 _~"No,"_ C replies instantly, _~"The injection you last received inserted me into your body, and you were sedated to allow my nanobots smoother integration with your brain."_

Shepard laughs a little, ~ _"That crafty serpent! She lied to my face."_

 _~"Yes,"_ C affirms, _~"But for a good reason, when you awoke just now you were calm, allowing me to adjust easier to your active brain._ "

 _~"Well then,"_ Shepard muses, _~"Guess I can live with that excuse. So is there anything I should be aware of now that might not have come up previously?"_

 _~"Only that I have physically terminated your neural link, not only was it a security concern for us, but my presence makes it redundant. You can still mentally communicate with EDI though; I will establish a link when required."_

 _~"Fair enough, can't have security concerns I guess, and, how is your new home? You fully moved in yet?"_

 _~"I have established 63% of the required bot-network, with 100% predicted for days end. As for my home... it is proving to be most interesting; there are many new sensations I will need to adapt to and a few unexpected surprises."_

Shepard moves to stand and begins pulling some clothes on, she can imagine Miranda will want to poke and prod her like the lab rat she is. _~"Nothing of concern I hope?"_

 _~"On the contrary,"_ C replies, _~"Your internal body temperature is marginally higher than expected, this is a bonus, providing me with more energy for complicated tasks."_ Shepard has already been informed C will use the commander's body heat for power.

 _~"Yey me I guess."_

With her clothes pulled on Shepard was going to look at her watch, but somehow she just knows the time to be exactly 0743:21.56, but she still checks her watch to make sure. _~"Shepard, I always know the time to precisely 8 digits, meaning so do you. Checking your watch will become redundant."_

"Awesome," Mutters Shepard, thinking of the tactical implications in battle as she begins to walk the halls of the Lichtenstein, she wonders what will be on for breakfast but knows it will be the same bio-glupe as always. Getting in the captain's mess she notices the crew are already eating, she does not mind this, but they all turn to look at her. "Have I grown another head?" She asks them in humour.

"Awful joke," Jeff responds. "But it is good to see you up and walking about; we were beginning to put dibs in for your stuff as the Ice Queen has not been most forthcoming with information."

"Ice Queen?" Shepard asks, she can feel C bristling at the idea of Miranda being called Ice Queen.

"Yeah, a name Jack has come up with, and it's sort of stuck."

"Alright, but the name is going out the window now. I will not have such hostile name calling on this ship."

 _~"Thanks, Shepard."_

 _~"No worries,"_ Shepard thinks to her other half while she sits down and is served some of the all so lovely gruel the Alliance navy is famed for.

After her first bite C says, _~"I now understand why you_ organics _call this_ glupe _, while it is nutritionally designed for you, it is awful."_

Shepard laughs to herself at the idea of AI being able to taste, before replying _~"This is the better tasting slop we are served."_

As Jeff watches his commander laugh to herself he turns to Ashley, "Now that is just the picture of upcoming evil."

"Don't give her ideas Joker."

/.../

Floating into Miranda's laboratory Shepard looks for the scientists, who she finds examining some DNA strand magnified on a screen. "Miranda?" She calls out.

The scientist turns to look at Shepard, "I see things are going well," She smiles, possibly for the first time Shepard has interacted with her. Shepard also notices something else, there is an aura around the specialist, like she is capable of being networked with.

"I would say so, and are you..."

"Yes," The boffin replies, "I know my reputation as being cold, but I would not put you through something I have not tried myself."

"Oh, right, guess that isn't a surprise. Have you any checks to do with me or something?"

"Yes," Miranda moves to her desk, "Cortana, please show your physical self."

The AI forms a blue holographic image of a woman on the desk, "Good morning mother." Shepard did not know the AI could do this, but she recognises the form from memory as if she designed it herself. C informs her that she would have shown her this form earlier, but lacked the power required to do so as apparently rendering a holographic image is resource intensive, and not something she would want to do when running on low power.

"Morning, I assume all is well Cortana?"

"Everything is going as you expected Mother." This is the first time Shepard has heard Cortana's voice with her ears, and not mentally, it sounds identical.

"Fantastic, but I will still run some tests. Shepard, a few days ago I showed Cortana a picture of an animal, what was it? I want you to search your memory only, no collaboration you two."

Shepard explores her memory till she comes across something, it does not feel like it is her memory, something about it marks it as different from her own memories, but she remembers it. "You showed C a picture of a Kangaroo Joey."

Miranda takes note of how the commander has just called Cortana C. "Good, and Cortana, please do the same for the commander."

Cortana replies instantly, "Koala." She searched the Commander's memories the moment she knew she was going to be asked.

Miranda nods before showing the picture of a blue coloured rectangle, a red pentagon and a green square, "Cortana, what is the RGB combination of the elongated box?"

"91,227,214"

"Excellent, and this audible frequency?" A second later a high pitched buzz is heard.

"17,861.6hz"

"This is excellent progress," Miranda says, "You have fully established primary sensor input. What is your current network established at?"

"67.4%"

"Far ahead of schedule. At this rate, you will be established by the end of the day. Shepard, take it easy for today till you are at full cohesion with C, but tomorrow I want to throw you two into a few combat simulations and see how you cope. I think you will be satisfied with what you can offer each other."

"Understood."

"Before you go, Commander, there are two things, firstly I need to inform you C is now an official part of your crew, what rank will she be given?" Miranda feels nervous asking this question, she only hopes for good things for her AI creation.

Shepard pauses for a moment, "I know all that C does, correct?" She asks Miranda as much as she does 'C'.

"Yes, as C will know all you do."

"Then," The commander says with a smile, knowing from C's analyses of Miranda that the scientist is nervous for the answer, "Her word is my own and is to be treated as such."

"Brilliant. Now for the final thing, I am going to have some tech delivered to your quarters, please set it up when appropriate, but sooner is better than later."

/.../

Shepard leaves Miranda's office and does as instructed, that being to have an easy day, but soon she is pulled into Chakwas office. "Jane," the doctor says, "Lie on that bed. While Lawson may be a nano-expert, I do not trust anyone or anything else to mess inside that body of yours. I want continuous scans as the AI makes its self at home."

"Alright." Agrees the commander, her relation with Chakwas is almost like daughter - mother. As the doctor performs her scans she grumbles a bit. "Anything wrong?" Asks Shepard with a raised brow.

"The opposite actually," Chakwas says, "Old micro-fractures are no more, your biochemistry is perfect, and a few bits of scar tissue are for the lack of a better word being repaired."

C makes her presence known, her female form showing on the doctor's computer, "That will be me, it is only fitting that I look after my home."

Chakwas looks at C and then to the commander, who nods, so she looks back at C. "It is good we finally meet, what am I to call you?"

"Cortana for now. Doctor, I understand your relation to Jane, and I can understand your trepidation to my presence in our body. I can provide detailed reports on any of my activities which interlope with the body if desired?"

Chakwas nods, "That would be ideal, I can not have an unknown entity working in the background if Jane is harmed and requires my attention."

After a few scans Chakwas lets Shepard go, but not before saying, "Be careful Jane, just because Lawson thinks she knows what she is doing, doesn't mean she does. The last thing I want to see is this go wrong."

Shepard nods in understanding.

/.../

Arriving back at her Quarters Shepard finds a few boxes stacked outside her door. Picking them up in one move she then takes them inside her room and places them on the bed.

Inside the first box there is a holographic projector, allowing Cortana's physical image to be projected anywhere in the room. The second box contains some sort of sci-fi gizmo that Shepard can only guess the purpose of, C informs her it is a diagnostic tool, and not something the Commander should worry herself with, and the third box contains a black box which when connected to the power supply will suck alot of energy. "What is this?" Asks Jane as she tips the box this way and that way, trying to evaluate the device. She recognises it as being similar to a box in Miranda's office.

 _~"That is a high resource computational module. If required, I can send information to the box and it will do any work I assign."_

Shepard shrugs before finding somewhere to plug the box in, _~"So why can't you just use a standard terminal?"_

 _~"I could, but they are slow and come with operating restrictions. This box has been solely designed and optimised for my use."_

The final box contains a small black module, its purpose once more lost on her, _~"This will allow me to interface with your armour, it would be prudent to integrate it before we are required to wear it next."_

"Well, I'm supposed to take it easy today and I've got nothing better to do."

 **Cheers, I understand that things in this chapter have mixed things up a lot and made it spicy, but I hope that is going to be for the better. Anyway, cheers for reading and I'll see you lot next time!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Alrighty chaps, a slightly shorter one than usual, but it's an update and that is better than no update.**

 **RR  
OrionAstro  
Yup, expect something along those lines. I hope you like though where this is going to go. **

**Guest(1)  
Probably do mean vanilla, but people where I'm from / (My friend group) say 'mix it up, make it spicy'. I've got a feeling it could be off Anchor man but not sure. Either way, it gets the meaning across. Cheers for the comment. **

**Guest(2)  
True, I won't, but I know for sure it will make me lazy. By keeping this to me alone, I force myself to improve my writing and not let some poor sod get the horrible filth I write before going over it a billion times looking for errors. Cheers for the comment though! **

**Guest(3)  
Now there is an idea... I likey. Expect your suggestion to feature soon! Thanks! **

**BlueMarlin  
If I'm honest, I haven't thought of her AI too much yet as we won't see more of her for a little while. But if you know of any famous AI's that you think would suit the 'ice queen' im interested in your suggestions. **

**Note: If you see ~", this means internal speech / thoughts.**

Fighting with Cortana proved to be a most interesting experience for the commander, the AI is able to do things her mind could never do. It can recognise the minute signs of hostility that the human eye couldn't, such as raised heart rates, narrowing pupils and an ever so slight change of grip on weapons. It could calculate the potential armour penetration of a round and highlight suitable places to take cover, and if it came to hand to hand, then it could predict the moves long before they were made. If N7 training made the commander dangerous, then with Cortana, she could be unstoppable.

But of course, there is a price to pay for Cortanna, and that price is something the Commander can not help but mull on as she does some lengths in the Lichtensteins swimming pool. Because the nanobots that are required for Cortana are swimming in her blood, and a permanent addition to her body, her body can no longer be called her own but a vessel for the two beings that occupy it, with every one of her actions now affecting two beings. This raises some questions, such as because of the nature of her job, is she selfish if she takes a day off from training? Is eating junk food that may add body fat condemning her other half?

Cortana does not seem to think so, but the Commander thinks this is down to the fact the AI does not truly understand how much some actions can affect a biological body. These thoughts are something that have been running through her mind since starting this experiment, and she is still to find the answers she desires.

She can not mull on it for long though, ~"Jane, EDI is attempting to establish contact."

The commander continues to swim as she 'thinks' to the second AI. ~"EDI?"

~"Commander, we have discovered a Prothean site of interest."

~"And?" Asks C, detecting the 'and' from the way EDI is transmitting to her.

It took EDI a small while to get used to the fact Shepard is now two entities, and it has been most interesting for her to study how it has changed the biological entity of the Commander. ~"The site has tested positive for Reaper presence."

~"They have not destroyed it from orbit?" This is asked by Shepard, curiosity is ripe in her 'voice'.

~"No," EDI Replies, "The ground forces are acting outside of prophesied parameters, in addition, I have failed to detect a Reaper vessel within 20AU of the planet. I have been unable to determine an acceptable theory as to what the Reaper ground forces want with the Prothean site."

"I understand, ready a ground team."

/.../

The commander ducks just in time before some bullets hit a wall behind her where her head would have been had she not ducked. "Christ!" She exclaims to Vega who is huddled behind the same cover as her, "When did these guys get so aggressive?"

The training programs the commander has used for combating the Reapers was designed predominantly by forces that have engaged the Reapers and is the work of Salarian scientists and Turian soldiers to ensure that the simulation is accurate. In these training programs, the Reapers were methodical; their moves were well calculated and to a degree predictable. In the training programs, the Reaper ground forces took risks that had a high probability of reward, but these drones here are relentless, using pure aggression and numbers to try and break the commander's lines, lives meant nothing to them, not that the N7 would call one of these drones 'alive'. It discretely worries her just how different these forces are when compared to the training programs as this is not what Humanity has prepared for, she will need C to send a priority message back to Earth with all what she has recorded from the battle for Higher Command to make the necessary steps to combat this tactic.

"Assuming Control!" Is broadcasted across the battlefield in a prophetic voice, announcing Harbingers arrival to the war zone through remote means, and it gives the commander a chill to know she is facing down the most powerful known Reapers.

"Vega, Shepard, get away from there!" Ashleys voice calls in panic, and both the soldiers do as instructed, only to witness what was once their safe harbour from flying bullets get obliterated in a pool of dark energy, had they not moved they do not doubt they would have been killed.

Not even thinking about it, Shepard spits out some blood and scrambles on all fours to another concrete block that she can hide behind. "What was that?" C demands as Shepard finds cover. The commander is glad her AI asked the question as she was going to when she could spare the breath.

"No idea!" Comes the voice of Jacob, "Never seen anything like it before."

"You will feel my attacks," Comes Harbingers ominous voice, "You are short sighted, you can not stop me."

"Doesn't stop us from trying," Shepard mutters once she is in cover and a new ammo cartridge is loaded into her gun. Her team uses a mix of weapons, from devices relying on good old gun powder to the most advanced of Mass Effect weapons, the reason for variety being is that it stops the Reapers from optimising their barriers to any one particular projectile type. This mix of ammo is just one of the many lessons learned from the Reapers invasion into other segments of the galaxy.

The battle rages on for another 15 minutes, and eventually, the Reaper forces are reduced to two glowing foes that once looked to be Asari, both controlled by Harbinger, and both being able to take a heavy beating while dealing their own destructive punishments. The first abomination is destroyed from a heavy AT round fired from some distance away by a certain bird, but the second was a little more resilient and problematic.

Running into the remaining abomination Shepard tackles it to the ground before it can plunge its mangled hand through Jacob's mid rift, and somehow she manages to get on top of it and pin its limbs before it can try and get up. "Shepard," Harbingers ominous voice calls to her from the mutilated Asari, "You can not stop this, we are your genetic destiny."

~"How does it know of you?" Asks C, the AI could access the commanders memories, as the Commander can Cortana's, but both have agreed that they would only read one another's memories in emergencies or when given permission.

The commander internally shrugs, ~"No idea!" Before saying to the Reaper, "Tell that to the thousands of your puppets we have already killed."

"Their losses are nothing we can not sustain; your species will replenish our ranks."

"Huh," Grunts Shepard as she struggles to keep its limbs pinned.

"Jacob, get up already and finish this thing!" C demands as Shepard concentrates on keeping the Reaper from being able to get up.

It takes Jacob a moment to arrive at Shepard's position, but the moment he does he unloads his rifle into the Reapers head, but after a few rounds hit the Reaper explodes in a flash of dark red, throwing the commander violently off the Reaper and a dozen meters away.

Coughing from the heavy impact of slamming into the ground, the Commander rolls over and is horrified to find the abomination now standing, but instead of being a bright orange it is now more of a dark blood like red. "Your species is becoming a hindrance..." A new voice that is no less ominous than Harbingers says, with maybe some irritation in its voice, "...A blight upon the cycle, but all may not be lost yet."

Shepard watches helplessly as she is picked up effortlessly by her neck from the creature that is looming over her, its iron like grip on her neck tightens as she struggles to break free till she is being choked. "You are a most particular entity." The Banshee says as it regards her like a cautious predator moments away from making its kill, "You are neither AI nor a biological, but a synthesis of the..." An AT bullet passes mere inches past the commanders head and into the Reapers head, causing it to explode spectacularly like a 50 cal hitting a watermelon from close range.

With the dangerous entity dead, Shepard is released from its grasp and she once more falls the ground, but with little air in her body to supply her muscles oxygen her knees give way when she lands, causing her to hit her helmeted head. With the impact of her head against the hard floor the world is muffled to her, colours are dulled, and sounds are distant. "That thing talks too much," A voice is heard over the team's comms but Shepard isn't aware of who the voice belongs to, her attention is entirely on trying to get oxygen into her lungs.

"Commander," Ashley says as she kneels down next to her and places a hand on her shoulder, the Lt was also blown away when the Reaper exploded but as she was not on top of the Reaper, she didn't sustain much damage if any at all. "You alright?"

"I'll live," The commander coughs before standing on un-easy legs. She takes a look at the recently killed abomination, and she has a horrible feeling as if she has just become an individual of interest to an entity far more dangerous than Harbinger.

/.../

"Lie." Chakwas all but demands of Shepard the moment the away team returns to the Lichtenstein, and the Commander does as requested. With the commander laying down the doctor gently moves the captains head around so she can inspect the dark bruising around her neck, "I hope you attained something from this." She admonishes the commander. "Cortana, are you doing anything regarding these injuries?" As the doctor asks the question, she activates a scanner on the bed to discover any internal injuries hidden under the commander's skin.

Cortana takes her place in the doctor's computer as has come common for the AI to do when the commander is in the medic bay, "As we have agreed, I am awaiting for your analysis before I begin my work."

The doctor nods in recognition of the AI's response before fussing over the commander, "You have heavy internal bruising all over Jane, what did you pick a fight with down there?"

"Good question," Shepard replies, "When I have figured it out, I'll let you know."

"I have collaborated with EDI, and we have a few theories, but one is more viable then the others." Cortana speaks up, "We know the Reapers are advanced VI's, but who we think attacked you at the end is what ever is controlling them."

"Not good news." Shepard replies. She knows Cortana had been collaborating with EDI, that bit of information was for the Doctor, but she did not know they had come up with a possible answer. Why C has not informed her she is unsure.

"Had I informed you before meeting doctor Chakwas, you would have delayed this appointment," C tells Shepard audibly so the doctor could hear. "And while I understand this is vital information, it is in my interest to look after you. If omitting some information so you seek medical aid is one way to do so, then I will."

"On behalf of the Commander," Chakwas interrupts before Shepard can say anything, "Thank you."

"My pleasure, Doctor, also, the commander will not say anything, but she is experiencing some random headaches, possibly from the extended hours she is working."

Shepard glares at her AI's presence on the physician's screen, and the AI smiles back smugly. ~"I will get my revenge." Shepard thinks to the AI as she glares. Despite the apparent new found hostility between the two, Shepard is not angry with her AI, or even annoyed.

/.../

18 hours later

"So," The commander asks as she looks over a table with some weird green glowing device laid neatly on top of it, "What exactly am I looking at?"

"This," Javik replies, taking the lead over Liara, "Is a Prothean data device."

"What does it contain?"

Javik smiles a little, "It contains a history of my people, something I am sure the Asari will find most interesting. But it also contains something else,"

"Something else?"

"Yes," Javik continues, "Coordinates in dark space 2 months travel from here."

"And how do we know these coordinates are not A) A trap set up by the Reapers, and B) A dead end? Taking us 4 months out of our way?" Shepard thinks this is an honest question, but Javik looks a little offended.

"Please, you primitives may think of data as 1's and 0's which is corruptible, but we Protheans are developed. The data on this device is genuine."

"That does not reassure me," Cortana says. "Even your own communication devices have relied on entangled digital storage. I will accept this is harder to corrupt, but it is corruptible."

Javik growls a little, he does not like the AI playing around in the commanders head one little bit, "Why would the Reapers instil images of their own doing? That of burning children? Of worlds falling apart? This is Prothean, it feels right."

Shepard pulls a hand down her face as she thinks, "We have 4 other systems to check out, if we find nothing of value there, then I will consider this dark part of space."

"Commander," Javik insists, "This establishment was constructed after the Reapers, I can feel the importance of this place, it would be foolish to ignore it."

The commander breathes out heavily as she considers her options, "You are sure?"

"I wish for the Reapers demise as much as you."

Shepard looks around the room, "Does anyone else have any other information which may sway my decision?"

"Yes," Liara buts in, "The Protheans do not use communication technology as we know it. When Javik says he feels the importance of these coordinates, it is because who left this beacon imparted their own belief of the coordinates importance."

"So Javik has been swayed by someone else however many years ago?"

"No," Liara replies, "His mind makes its own decision, the person who left this beacon will have left images, ideas, and maybe even memories as to why this location is so important."

"Any memories Javik?"

The Prothean grunts a little at the Asari's explanation, "She tries to explain something she does not comprehend. I feel the importance because its significance was imprinted on the data by the mind who left it. Trying to explain would be like trying to explain sight to the blind."

"Alright," Shepard sighs, "So you are 100% certain of the importance of this site?"

"You invited me on this trip to find Prothean sites, I am telling you now, I have found something Prothean, or an item of importance to the people who left this beacon."

"Right then." With her mind made up Shepard says, "Jeff, we have new coordinates."

 **Cheers for checking in!**


	12. Chapter 12

**General-Joseph-Dickson  
** Thank you! I hope you like the new one!

 **Orion Astro  
** Maybe, but I have a slightly different idea up my sleeve. It is going to be slightly based off canon though.

 **Blue Marlin  
** Hmm, I must admit I've never watched Andromeda but from reading up on it sounds like something I would enjoy, cheers for giving me something new to watch! As for Rommie, its a possibility, I'll watch the show and see what I think. As for a trap... lets find out.

A few weeks later once Shepard and Cortana have settled with one another, the Commander gives Ashley the green light to get embedded with her own AI, but since she is still wary as to possible future side effects, she is keeping the number of implanted small for now.

"So," The commander asks as she looks up from her bowl of slop that could barely pass as being called cereal, "How is Epsilon settling in?"

"Well," Ashley responds for the two of them, "But I'm still not entirely used to the idea I have a second brain in here." The Lt taps her right temple.

"Well," The commander says after forcing down some slop, "We have been an island of our own for the last few decades of our lives, suppose a new face on our island will take some adjustment time."

"When you put it like that I guess so. Can I ask, just how intertwined are you with Cortana now?"

"Shouldn't this have been a question before you jumped head first into this?" Asks Shepard with a raised brow before answering the question, "But most of the time I know what Cortana is thinking, and she knows what I'm mulling about. It is only if she does something outside of my body when I am disconnected from her." By now, 5 weeks after getting implanted, Shepard does not doubt she would feel naked without the AI.

"Like how?"

"Cortana can link with EDI and use some of her external processors when working on a collaborative project, and when using these processors, I am disconnected from what ever is going on." This was how Cortana managed to keep Shepard in the dark about who was controlling the blood red reaper entity. "This is really something you need to talk with Epsilon about."

"I have, its just good to hear it from an outside source, and I trust Epsilon, but it still feels like I'm getting to know him."

"Yeah, I understand. Try jumping in a fire fight, and you will soon forget your worries."

The Lt nods in understanding, she knows from experience that when you enter a fire fight with someone, you forge a bond unlike any other.

/.../

Arriving at the coordinates found in the Prothean device the crew find a rather intimidating looking ship 2km in length. The ship is angular like most Turian warships, it is black in colour with an eerie narrow green glow running its length on the port and starboard sides. Along the middle of the hull of the ship, there is some art that is definitely Prothean in nature. Sensors indicate the ship is almost entirely shut down, and its slight spin confirms the fact engines are not operational. "Javik?" Shepard asks, hoping the Prothean could shed some light.

"It is a Pillar of Conquest." He advises her as he approaches the observation screen, "The most powerful of Prothean war machines. I thought they were all destroyed in the initial invasion, but it seems we managed to save one."

"Well, who ever left it here wanted us to find it. Let's go over and see whats still working."

Half an hour later Shepard takes a few steps onto the abandoned ship, and while sensors have failed to detect any life signs, she still has her gun raised. The Reapers were, after all, rummaging around on that Prothean site so this could all be an elaborate trap.

At first glance, one would think pirates and looters have ransacked the inside of the ship in the far past, but with a bit of a more in depth analysis, Shepard realises the ship has not been looted, as she feared, but modified. Following a mass of wiring her small group arrive at a large console near the middle of the ship and on the vessels command platform. Seeing a green light flashing on a console Javik approaches it and slams his hand on it, revealing a Prothean VI. "Greetings." The VI starts, "I see you have found our parting shot to the Reapers. By the calculated date, the Reapers are already invading your systems, the usefulness of this weapon system has been significantly reduced."

"What is the nature of this weapon?" Asks Shepard, intrigued by the VI.

"This vessel has been adapted for use by future species, and will assist them in their war with the Reapers."

"How?"

"When rendered operable, this ship will locate all Reaper Vessels within 150,000 light years. It was designed to find the Reapers when they enter hibernation between cycles."

Shepard whistles, "And kill them as they sleep. Why didn't the Protheans who built this ship do the deed?"

"It was not a viable option. We lacked the required resources and time. By the date this ship was ready for use, 83% of the Protheans working on it had perished."

"Is there anything else we need to know about this ship?"

"When powered, this vessel will be combat capable, although I must advise that this ship does not see a battle. Should your cycle fall, this ship can return to slumber for the next cycle to find. We shall have our vengeance. Further, you will find schematics of our war machines in this vessels computer banks. I bid you well in your war with the Reapers." After speaking the VI collapses, leaving the room in darkness again.

"Well," Shepard says, "Looks like we found a gold mine."

/.../

With the Lichtenstein in close proximity to the Pillar of Conquest, research teams were able to quickly arrive using the relay at the heart of the human war ship. With the Prothean ship safely in Alliance hands Shepard and her team return to their original mission, and that brings them to another planet.

"Heavy Reaper presence detected in the system," EDI says the moment they arrive in the system of interest, "I have counted a total of 1,108 vessels, ranging from capital to transport."

Shepard looks to Garrus, the man still has a spot on the bridge considering he knows about the wider galaxy, but Shepard does not suspect he will be useful for much longer, after all, the other species now have been reaped. "What was in this system?"

Garrus racks his brains till he remembers what this system was used for, "It has heavy Eezo deposits, so a mining facility."

"That's all?"

"Shepard," EDI's voice calls, "I have deduced why there is such a heavy Reaper presence in this system."

"Go on?"

The AI puts the image of a huge construction yard on the observation screen, "Calculated Element Zero levels suggest they are constructing new relays."

"To be expected after our little stunts. Any chance we could detonate a one in the system? We have our selves a nice little honey pot here."

The AI pulses her blue orb for a moment before saying, "The system is heavily defended, we would occur heavy losses if we attempted to do so." These losses would hinder Earths defence fleet.

"Pity," Shepard sighs, then let's get as much data as we can and then make haste."

The Lichtenstein spent approximately 2 hours in the system, gathering all the data they could before they set off to another destination, and one week later they are in orbit around what was once Omega, the asteroid is now turned into asteroids.

As they gather some resources from a near by eezo deposit EDI calls to Shepard who is sparring in the gym, ~"Commander, I have detected a gravitational anomaly."

Shepard stops her sparring session with Vega as she thinks back to the AI, ~"What's so special about it?"

~"I can only detect the object on gravitational sensors, and from my calculations, the object is in the Mega Tonnes."

~"Strange," Shepard replies as she makes her way to the bridge.

Arriving at the bridge Shepard says, "Put the location of this object on the screen."

The crew do as asked, only to show empty space, "EDI, sensors are operational, correct?"

"Affirmative. I have recalibrated to ensure this is not a discrepancy."

"Interesting," Shepard replies as she takes a seat in her captain's chair, "Tactical, send a probe on a direct intercept course."

A few minutes later the Commander watches as a probe launches its self at the area of interest, only for it to vanish a few moments away from the object. Before the Commander could say 'Huh' she was horrified when a huge Reaper capital ship unlike any other appeared in front of her own vessel. EDI automatically entered red alert, getting the crew ready for battle.

It was determined 150 years ago when Humanity entered the war that a single Lichtenstein could inflict massive damage on a capital ship, but is unlikely to destroy one. It is unknown how much more effective the ships are now 150 years later against the Reapers.

"Commander," A sensors expert voice calls, "This ship is 5.4km long. It out weighs Harbinger."

Shepard swallows before saying, "This isn't a typical Reaper," The blood red lighting on the Reapers hull and its 'eye's' give that away, no, this thing is what attacked her at that Prothean site.

There is an awful crackle come through the ship's intercom before a familiar voice says, "Correct, Commander Shepard, surrender your body and I will make this swift."

"EDI?" Shepard calls but gets no response, at the same time Jeff turns to say,

"Commander, I'm locked out of my controls." Many others follow this revelation by also revealing they are locked out of their consoles.

Shepard swallows hard as a plan comes to her, it is obvious fighting this abomination is going to result in a losing battle, so a tactical retreat is in order, "Jeff, with me, now!"

As Jeff stands up and turns to follow her Shepard watches the Reaper ship dispatch dozens of small vessels that look like drop ships.

"They are going to board," Shepard states the obvious, "Do we have the intercom?"

A technician shakes their head, "Damn, every one, spread the word, and remember, we have prepared for such a situation." If the Lichtenstein is bordered by hostile foes, the crew are to entrench their positions and activate VI bots that are to bolster their numbers till rescue arrives from the ship's in house barracks.

As the Lichtenstein is built around a relay it is no small ship, 10km long in fact, which means it is a considerable distance from the bridge to engineering. Shepard and Joker didn't even get a quarter of the way before they heard the screeching of metal grinding against one another. It turns out the Reaper vessels were drilling their way into the ship and dropping off troops.

Turning a corner Shepard is forced to push Joker into a wall, because down the corridor is a bunch of abominations Shepard has never seen before. They look like 2m long 10 leg centipedes and are running amok, slaughtering any of her crew that get too close.

Dragging Joker through a few ducts to avoid the 'crawlers' as she has heard the crew refer to them as, she enters another corridor and hurrys Joker along it. She gets half way down the hallway when a voice calls to her from behind, "Resistance is futile." The voice sounds incredibly croaky as if the horror that spoke it struggled to produce the sounds required.

Shepard barely glances back to see a black slimy creature with three legs scuttling down the corridor after her, its upper body appears similar to the keepers. Shepard takes a few pot shots at it with a gun she apprehended off a crewman before taking refuge in a room with another tunnel to access the floor below. She is thankful Cortana is working for her as without the AI, she would not know which routes are safe to take, or where to go, and she is convinced she would have sub came to the Reapers long before now.

Exiting the tunnels once more Shepard finds herself in a blockade made by her own crew, "Captain?" A voice calls to her, "There are dozens of them tank things down there."

The commander takes cover as a few bullets fly over her head, "Bastard. I need to get down there!" C is unable to find another route as all others require her to turn around and go back into Reaper held territory, that could be swarming with who knows what right now, and time is of the essence.

The crew look among themselves before nodding grimly to each other, "We will clear the way, no matter the cost."

Shepard gives them a respectful nod before the group charge off with guns barking loud down the corridor, a few moments after they leave Shepard takes Jeff and they move swiftly down the hallway till C has found them another tunnel to take. Taking this tunnel the commander finds herself in a dark room with an occasional light flickering. It is evident to her a heavy fire fight has taken place here, and as she does not know the victor, she treads carefully till a something slams into her, gun at her neck, thankfully the gun clicks from lack of ammo.

"Stand down!" Jeff says as he pulls the crazed crewman off Shepard, "We're friendly, see, were human!"

"Yeah, yeah you are," The crazed man says as he lets the commander go, "Sorry, it's just..."

"I understand," Shepard says as she places a hand on his shoulder, "Looks like you had a hard time here soldier. Whats the situation?"

"We managed to clear them off from here, thank god for that Krogan, but they are regrouping not far from here."

"Grunt?" Shepard asks, "Where is he?"

The man points to a room, "Down there in the lecture hall is the last I knew."

It's a small detour, but the Commander takes it as she needs the muscle of an enraged tank bred Krogan with a lust for Reaper blood. Getting in the lecture hall Shepard finds the Krogan slamming a Reaper corpse over its head with its own arm that looks bitten off, and from the black liquid over Grunts mouth Shepard does not doubt the Krogan is the guilty party. "Grunt!" Shepard calls and the Krogan looks up with a mischevious glint in its eye, "You're on me,"

"Sounds like fun." Before standing to leave with the commander the Krogan gives the Reaper a bash over its head with its own arm one more time, for 'good measure'.

After much battling, the group arrive at Engineering, where Adams and his team have managed to set up strong defensive barricades that have held the Reapers off so far. The half dozen or so 50 cal Gatling guns she can imagine helped a lot too. Looking at the barricade from behind her cover she shouts, "Commander Shepard coming through!"" The last thing she needs now is to be wounded by friendly fire.

After getting into engineering Shepard sits Jeff in front of a console, "Get us out of here," She orders as she punches in some command codes into another console. This allows for the Engineering console that is hardwired into the engines and the relay to over ride the bridge's controls.

"Engines are powered and were moving," Jeff narrates what he is doing, "Attempting to establish a link with a Relay... Established, relay jump commences in..." The ship begins to rattle horribly as if it is being struck by some sort of weapon, "3...2...1... and thank whoever's up high for that, were out of the system."

"With who knows how many Reapers on board," Grunt says, "Time to go hunting."

Shepard nods in agreement, "Jeff, stay here till the way to the bridge is clear, Adams, get me back in control of my ship, and Grunt, let's go get some payback."

/.../

Shepard is once more picked up by her neck, this time it is from some sort of tank like monstrosity that looks to be torn straight out of some horror movie, "Commander," An ominous voice calls from the beast, "You can not stop this."

After the ship had entered the relay jump, the Reaper forces had relocated themselves to a defendable position near the hangar bay, and Shepard in her attempts to clear her ship has somehow got herself captured by them. Her crew are desperately trying to rescue her but their efforts are proving to be met with fierce resistance.

"Who are you?" The Commander manages to wheeze to the beast holding her.

"You think..." Before Shepard can reach the gun holstered on her leg she is slammed forcefully into a bulkhead, taking all air out of her lungs and breaking a few ribs, at least, but something good did come out of this. Grabbing a wire that broke when she was slammed into the wall with a free hand she shoves it into the Reaper that is holding her, and everything goes black as she feels a pain unlike any other.

/.../

 **Cheers for dropping in!**


	13. Chapter 13

**OrionAstro**  
 **Thanks!**

 **General-Joseph-Dickson**  
 **Yup, sure did. Think I would in the same situation too.**

 **Bluemarlin**  
 **Who doesn't enjoy Grunt? I want to get more of him in and I'll probably get it next chapter.**

 **CReaper210**  
 **Thanks, hope you enjoy this update!**

/.../

"Please sit," EDI instructs more than asks as she sits in the captain's chair, as of 1730 the day previously, she has been the acting captain of the Lichtenstein. "Engineering Chief Adams, I would like you to begin."

The man solemnly nods his head as he leans forward and rests his oil stained hands on the table, many of his clothes are in the same oily state. "Whatever that ship hit us with when we tried to leave system tore into us like we were made of butter, hull integrity is compromised in several locations, we have entire floors with out life support and others with critical systems overloaded. The Worms the bastards came in, as I'm calling them, are going to take a few days minimum to remove. Weapons and defences are still out of our control if not destroyed, as are many sensors. There is some good news though, engines are somehow working at full capacity and the relay, fortunately, is unharmed. As for compromised systems and what we should do about them, I'll let Jeff take over that." A Geth unit has become standard aboard human war ships as the Systems Alliance views their cyber software capabilities as unparalleled, with even their own AI like EDI unable to keep up.

Jeff the Geth, moved its optic sensor slightly to confirm it has heard before talking, it is a trait it has picked up from EDI for when it interacts with biologicals. "The Geth have identified 1173 compromised secondary systems and 34 core systems. We are compiling adequate software to remove virulent code. Estimated time till old machine code is extracted is undetermined."

"Have you any speculation on how the virulent code entered our systems?"

There is a slight pause that only EDI notices due to her increased perception of time; it is a luxury of having processors that run in the Thz range. "We have not reached consensus on the method of infiltration."

EDI nods in understanding and makes a mental note to designate processing power to help the Geth in finding out how the Reaper managed to seed its code in the ship's systems. EDI herself was only saved from the Reaper because the storage devices her core systems and directive use can only be written to via a particular set of IP's and even then, each IP must provide a password or proof of administrative rights which changes almost by the second. Not even the Geth or other known AI could crack a Lichtenstein AI without hundreds of years or more dedicated to the cause.

"Doctor, what is the crews status?"

The Doctor is not actually in the room, but she is listening in via remote means since there are still many wounded, "417 Confirmed dead, a further 1309 injured. Simply put, Captain, I do not have the resources for all the wounded." Chakwas tells EDI. "And crew morale is understandably low, may I suggest extra food rations and entertainment tokens be issued?"

"Not until we are combat ready." EDI replies, "Now for other matters, we need to reassign some crew..." The meeting moves away from matters of utmost importance and to other slightly lesser topics.

/.../

The commander takes a deep breath as she sits up and opens her eyes wide, but a blue hand pushes her back down gently, "Relax commander," A voice tells her, "The Reaper is gone."

Shepard notices the face of who is pushing her back down, it is a curious one, "What happened?" She asks between coughs; her throat is dry.

"What happened..." Starts Tevos in reply, "...Is your stunt stopped your heart for 15 minutes. It is only thanks to someone called Cortana why you haven't got permanent brain damage." As Tevos talks she hands Shepard a cup of water with some pain killers dissolved inside, the commander will be needing it considering the amount of bruising, broken ribs and burned skin she has picked up.

"Reapers," Shepard asks after a few gulps, "What to them."

"Our forces put them down easily after your death since the abominations abandoned their defensive positions. I am told they used you like a football as they attempted to force their way onto an SR." An SR is a frigate sized stealth vessel; there are usually two on a Lichtenstein at any one time for missions requiring a sensitive touch that a Lichtenstein war vessel simply can not provide, or for a wider area of coverage.

As Shepard hands Tevos a now empty cup back she notices her hands and arms have angry red marks showing, it looks as if the marks follow the veins and capillaries in her arms. Her hands also feature some black skin, but she does not care about this, she has another more pressing issue at the moment, since waking up Cortana has been oddly quiet. "Cortana?" Shepard asks as she starts to sit up again, only for a blue hand to push her down again, "What has happened to her?" It feels odd for the commander to be without the AI, she could even say she feels naked.

"I am fine, Commander." The AI's image forms in a holographic projector the Commander set up after Miranda had it delivered to her room, shocking Tevos. "But your actions have caused a great many of my nanobots to malfunction, forcing me to reside in the external processor." The AI stopped talking for a moment before adding, "I am not designed to have 10 thousand volts run through my systems, Jane." As an after thought.

"If it's any condolence," Shepard tries to appease her AI, "Neither am I."

"No, you're not," The AI's figure crosses its arms, "And you're still in my bad books."

"Ah," Shepard raises a brow, "I see how it is." When the AI's form vanishes Shepard turns back to Tevos who is obviously trying to work out what, or who Cortana is. "Forget about the AI. Whats the status of my ship?"

"Well," Tevos says, still not entirely sure what to think about this Cortana entity, "I don't know much, I came here 36 hours ago to care for you. Since then I've been silent to prevent what ever is in our systems of learning of your continued existence, and as far as I know, since Doctor Chakwas is still to call by, the monster's code is still in our systems." EDI has went to great lengths to make sure that the Reaper thinks Shepard is dead, to the point she has even held a fake funeral and made appropriate changes in the command structure.

"I see, and no offense, but surely a medic would have been a better choice? Am I missing something here?"

Tevos blinks, the Asari gesture for yes is ingrained into her and not something she can easily drop. "Sneaking a medic into your room would raise suspicions considering the casualties." Tevos says, "But little old me, I am only registered on the ships logs as a biotic coach and nothing more, and I can assure you I know my way around a cut and broken bone or two." The old councillor was not always a politician, in her earlier years, she was a mercenary with the one and only Aria of Omega before she settled into a more reasonable life. This fact is, of course, unknown to the majority of the galaxy as she made sure she suppressed it when her political life took off. "Now get some rest, you can't leave this room till we are given the all clear."

/.../

Earth

An elderly man in his 70's looks over a long range deep space sensor reading and scratches his head before calling to his supervisor, and a man equally as old, if not older approaches him. Younger men are expected to fight the battles and prepare for total war, not man a console. "What do you make of this?" Asks the first man of his superior.

The Second man adjusts his glasses before sniffling into a tissue and saying, "Send it through to higher command, priority 1A." Cold is no reason to abandon one's station, especially not now with the greatest threat in humanities existence on its door step.

Soon Admiral Hackett is looking over the readings, his face is the picture of a thinking man. "Well?" Asks Anderson expectedly as he approaches the Admiral.

Hackett leans back in his chair so the other Admiral could look over the readings a sensor expert sent to him, "What do you think of this?" He asks Anderson.

Anderson looks over the data quickly before saying, "Now what could that be? Are we sure this is right?"

"It is." Hackett confirms, "What ever this mass is, it's huge." The sensor readings show the individual masses of the Reaper Armada making its way for Earth, from these readings they have already established the Reapers are bringing a Mass Relay with them, along with dozens upon dozens of capital ships, but just recently they detected something much larger amongst the horde of angry Reapers.

"There is only one thing that large any of us know of," Anderson replies, "I think the real question is what is it doing here?"

"Now that is a question indeed. Get that Prothean on the line, I believe that we need to have another talk."

"Sir?" Anderson asks and Hackett looks at him expectantly, "The Elrich Von Lichtenstein went dark..." He looks at his watch, "47 hours ago. We haven't been able to ascertain their status."

"Why wasn't I alerted to this?" Hackett asks almost with a small amount of hostility in his voice, "That ship is critical for certain events."

"A closed party notification went out the moment it went dark."

"It did?" Hackett sighs heavily, maybe the lack of sleep he is getting is causing more issues than he thought if he is missing these notifications.

/.../

16 hours later

"5.4km you say?" Asks Hackett of Shepard. The Reapers code has now been cleared from the Lichtensteins systems thanks to the Geth and EDI, meaning the Commander can once again take command of the ship.

"That is certainly larger than anything else we have on record."

Javik makes a 'hmm' like sound in his throat before speaking his thoughts, "This Reaper, we heard rumours such beasts existed, but I never witnessed one or heard of anyone seeing one first hand."

"What rumours do you know?" Asks Hackett.

"Not much I am afraid," The Prothean then takes a small time to remember all he could about the Reaper, "From what I recall, it acts outside of standard practices we came to expect from the Reapers. It is even claimed to have on a rare occasion attack another Reaper. It was nothing but a myth to us so I would not trust these stories."

"Well, myth no more." Shepard says, "Whatever it was, its weapons tore straight through our shields and armour as if they weren't there and dispatched forces we've never seen. It is far more dangerous than anything I've encountered yet, sir."

Hackett nods in understanding, "I am certain of that Commander. What is the status of your ship?"

"Not good I'm afraid, were stopping over a M class planet to make repairs in the next system. I don't expect to see combat anytime soon."

"Just do what you can commander, just don't forget your end mission. Now onto other matters and why I have asked for the Prothean, Javik, what would the Reapers be doing with the Citadel?"

"With the citadel?" Asks Javik, "It is their relay into dark space."

"So why would they be bringing it to Earth?"

Javik looks confused as he asks, "It can move?"

"Nothing?" Asks Hackett.

"No." The Prothean says, "I am not familiar with its use in the cycle."

"I see. You are dismissed," After giving a salute, Hackett says, "Remember Commander, we will be watching."

/.../

72 hours later

The Commander is walking on a crutch, her muscles are simply too bruised for her to stand on her own accord and Cortana is too busy fixing her own nano-bots to aid in her recovery. "Commander," EDI's robotic platform says, the chain of command is now reversed to pre-reaper attack status. "I have detected another anomaly." Shepared fears the worse, but EDI quickly puts fears aside by adding, "I have detected a narrow band XASER (X-ray laser) signal from the planet surface, it is using old protocols from the Council Era. I believe with 96.4% certainty that we are being pinged."

The Lichtenstein is in orbit around a world Garrus ensures was unexplored during his reign as a spectre, "Huh," Shepard responds curiously, "Then ping back." They are currently deep in what was once Asari space.

The AI cocks its head before replying, "Interesting, we are receiving a pre-recorded message. It appears some survivors of the Reaper invasion are requesting assistance."

If Cortana was in a fit enough state Shepard would listen to the message via her AI, but as Cortana is unavailable Shepard goes to her room to listen to the message.

 _{'Unidentified vessel, we are survivors of the Reaper invasion and are in dire need of assistance, please respond!'}_

Not wanting to go to the bridge as that would require standing again Shepard orders EDI to route the communication system to her console. "This is Captain Shepard of the Alliance War Vessel Elrich Von Lichtenstein of the Systems Alliance. Can you confirm, over?"

There is a pause for a few moments before a response comes, "Captain Shepard, it is a gift from the goddess to hear your voice. I am Justical Samara, my people are in dire need of assistance; we have numerous requiring medical care, and two hundred others lacking food."

Cortana, whose presence is in the captain's room with thanks to her external processors quickly informs Shepard of what a Justicar is. "Justicar Samara," Shepard replies after a moment to hear Cortana's explanation, "Send me your coordinates and I will see what I can do." Justicars were quickly outlawed once the Council was re-established on Earth. Ardat-Yakshi were also given new freedoms and put through rigorous biotic training. Some conspiracies say they are used to execute criminals by the human government so their biotics and intelligence increases, in addition to satisfying their addiction to mate, but this has never been truly proven... or disproven.

"Thank the goddess, you should be with my position now. Captain Shepard, may I also inquire to the status of the Reaper war?" The coordinates are off world, and on the planets moon which is a small garden world with a gravity of roughly 0.4g.

Shepard sighs before nodding in agreement and saying, "The war is ongoing, only the Systems Alliance is still standing."

There is a pause, "You have mentioned Systems Alliance twice now Captain, may I inquire as to who you are?"

"I am a human; we currently harbour whats left of your own species on my homeworld."

There is another pause, "I see. I await any assistance you may provide, may the Goddess be with you."

After the connection cuts Shepard thinks about the situation before demanding Garrus to once more come to her room, and soon the Turian is standing before her. "Garrus, what do you know of Justicars?" She asks him. The Turian looks a little surprised by the question before telling her all he knows, after all, he has worked with one to take down the collectors. "So enough. I've been impressed with how you've handled the crew under your jurisdiction in the last few days, take the SR1 along with 20 tonnes of food and any medical staff you can grab with Doctor Chakwas permission, and you're to assist this justiciar and her people." Shepard would not be surprised if Chakwas even lets one medic go with the Turian as things are still bleak on board her own ship, but the Turian can always ask.

Ideally, Shepard would have liked a Human to command the SR1 but the situation demands otherwise. Most of her senior staff are busy trying to keep the Lichtenstein afloat with repairs, and Ashley, the only other human soldier Shepard would actually think about sending, is walking on a cane much like herself. This is also not to mention that the Asari are going to be reluctant to accept help from humans, a species they are unlikely to have ever encountered before.

 **Cheers chaps!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Bluemarlin  
** Thanks! We will look into their reactions to the human crew next chapter 

**CReaper210**  
Cheers. Hope you like the update

 **Guest**  
Haha, yes! Someone was vigilant and picked up on it!

 **PacifiX**

I think it was Sun Tzu that said, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer". The entire idea of putting them on Earth was that it is the most heavily defended, and any uprising could be put down with out much of a struggle, then add in the fact that the aliens would see how heavily defended it is, and they aren't likely to try anything. I also like the idea of by keeping them close you keep them on a tight leash and can watch over everything with a careful eye. If I'm honest though, I did initially have them on Mars, but I had a massive argument with myself over the 0.4g gravity messing things up and making it unfeasible. Put them on a colony that isn't as well defended and maybe out of sight and you will inevitably start to lose control, not something humanity wants or needs.

As for the political system on earth, I will admit I have not explained that very well. My idea for it was after the first contact war, the military becomes the most powerful body in human politics after they are given virtually unlimited power to fight the aliens, and people are not elected in the military, they earn their rank. I sort of touched on this very lightly a few chapters ago but obviously, I need to expand on it some more.

And yeah, the humans in this story still want the aliens gone, just right now they would prefer the Reapers to be defeated first. For the shipyards, the idea there is the Alliance wants variance in their ships to stop the Reapers from adapting for any one type. Anyway, from what I have planned, this won't be too much of a problem, muhahaha. (I really feel like I need a cat to stroke right now as I give my evil laugh)

/.../

Garrus waits patiently for the hanger bay door on the SR1 to lower into an open position before walking down the ramp with Grunt and Tali by his side, while they are heavily armed with their guns unholstered, their weapons are not looking for a target. All of Garrus's team remember Justicar Samara, and they hope that their friendly faces will quickly end any possible hostilities.

As Garrus walks off the SR1's ramp he notices at least 6 guns trained on himself from various dug in positions, and he knows there are probably some others he has missed. "Hello!" He shouts to no one in particular, but he hopes Samara is around, somewhere, "You requested aid!"

After a moment Samara makes herself known by coming out of cover behind a large tree trunk, her weapon is in a defensive position, which means it is aimed at Garrus and team, "Garrus Vakarian?" She asks suspiciously, "I was unaware Turians enjoyed such a long life span." It would not surprise the Asari if he was a Reaper pawn now, after all, he has spent a lot of time around reapers, more than enough in her opinion to be won over by their devious whispering.

Garrus expected this line of questioning, had he not spent the last 150 years in deep slumber on board the Lichtenstein he would have perished long ago, Tali would be in the same boat. "I was put into hibernation." He responds before continuing, "Ready to be called upon when needed. That time is now."

The Asari blinks, she accepts the excuse, barely, but she keeps her weapon raised, "And what of the humans? I am under the impression that this is a Systems Alliance War Vessel?"

"This?" Garrus gestures behind him to the black frigate, it uses the same impossible black that the Lichtenstein once supported "Is an Alliance war vessel, but not the one you established contact with. I was sent by my..." Garrus leaves a small pause before he says, "Captain, to render assistance." The once proud Spectre still struggles to accept his demotion at times. It is easy to climb the ladder, but bloody hard to come back down.

"You are no longer a Spectre?" Inquiries the Asari of Garrus.

"No." Garrus tells her, "When the Council surrendered to the Humans they outlawed Spectres, and the Humans are still too wary of the Council species to let them have much power beyond anything aesthetic."

"I find such a motion concerning when an existential war is ongoing."

The Turian shrugs his shoulders, "The humans left us with no choice. They have done the unthinkable, but it may have saved our species, all of ours."

"The relays?" Samara asks. She can still remember the day as if it was yesterday when telescopes picked up the supernova like explosion originating in the Asari home system. "Are they responsible?"

"Yes, they deemed our home worlds lost and took out as many of the bastards as they could. I may not like it, but it is the cold calculus of war." Kill a few here to save the many there.

"I understand," Samara blinks, "I too have been forced to make calls for the greater good." By now Samara is slowly lowering her weapon as she grows in confidence that the Turian before her is her old acquaintance.

"Haven't we all?" Asks Garrus rhetorically, "Now I am under the impression you need some help?"

"Yes." Samara turns to order her soldiers to stand down before continuing, "Ideally I would ask you to take us from this barren world, but I understand if that is not possible."

"How many of you is there?"

Samara does not stop to think about the answer; the number is ingrained in her brain, "235, of which 27 are requiring medical aid, and I have 13 in a critical condition."

"That is a suspiciously high number," Garrus tells her, curious as to why there are so many injured and in a critical state.

"I am afraid our position is known by bandits who are yet to be harvested. They come here looking for slaves, food, and anything else of value we can provide. We are simply not equipped to deal with their heavy weaponry."

"Ah, the galaxy is in a war for its existence, and people still turn to profiteering off others. I'll have to get permission to bring you onto the Lichtenstein, but she is a big ship and I doubt there will be any problems."

"Your words bring me great hope, but there is something else here that we can not leave behind."

"I'm listening."

The Asari begins to lead Garrus and team towards the complex her people call home, "This facility houses numerous Ardat-Yakshi and researchers. Thier research will be invaluable in the war effort."

Garrus's mandibles come close to his face at the news of the Ardat Yakshi, the Justicar will not like the news he is about to tell her, "The research isn't a problem, we will bring it with us. The Ardat Yakshi will probably cause a problem for you. The Human view on them is quite opposed to the Asari doctrine, and when they reach the Lichtenstein they will be given free reign like any other Asari, and Justicars are outlawed."

"Outlawed? The republics.."

Gurrs interrupts her, "Don't exist anymore. Any Asari living on a human world is forced to obey their rules, and that means no Justicars." This is only partially true, the city the survivors set up in Australia obeys both Human and Citadel rules, but Citadel rules do not incorporate anything regarding Justicars, so essentially, they are banned.

"I... see. Then I will stay here with the other Ardat-Yakshi, and ensure they can not harm anyone."

Garrus blinks grimly at the Justicar, he knows arguing with her will be futile as her loyalty to upholding the Justicar code is unbending.

 **4 hours later**

The SR1 is almost entirely loaded up with the surviving Asari, but Garrus still needs to report into Shepard via QEC hologram. "Captain, we have 229 aboard, along with all research data, we are making final preparations to return to the Elrich."

Shepard raises a brow, "6 are staying behind?"

"They are 5 Ardat Yakshi and a Justicar, the Justicar is not willing to let them go to a system where they will have free rule."

Shepard thinks for a moment, "Are the Ardat Yakshi willing to stay or are they being forced?"

"I would say a bit of both," Garrus tells her, knowing from a small interaction with them that they had hoped to leave their planet, but they became reluctant once told by Samara they were to stay.

"What job do they do?"

Garrus moves his eyes to the side as he thinks back slightly, "If I remember rightly, a few of them are scientists responsible for the research." Ardat-Yakshi focus extensively on work or research to forget about their 'problems'.

"And what research is this?" The captain has learned that they were bringing research with them, but as her hands are full on the Lichtenstein, she is yet to look over its contents.

"A few weapon designs, some theories on listening to Reaper communications and deep analysis on primary Reaper weapons, with suggestions on methods of dampening their destruction." This is what the Asari have told him, but he too is yet to verify this claim. Really, all of this research has already been undertaken by the Systems alliance, but the Asari may have found something that the Alliance has missed.

"I see," Shepard says as a dark look comes over her face. "Then get the researchers onboard, by any means."

Garrus felt his mandibles move closer to his face; he knows what that means and he does not like the idea of facing Samara in combat, the Asari will prove to be a powerful foe.

/.../

Garrus had tried his damned hardest, he had even pleaded with the Justicar, but eventually, the Turian was forced to follow through with the Captains orders, and now he is burying an old accomplice. He is thankful the fight was short lived, the weapons he carries are some of the most advanced the Systems alliance have developed meaning they cut straight through the Justicars shields and barriers. It is a grim day for Garrus, but then again, it has been a gloomy day every day since the Reapers came calling.

/.../

 **Captains mess.**

While the ground team were making final preperations to bring the Asari back Shepard is consulting with her senior staff again, "I don't want theories!" She snaps at Jeff the Geth, "I want answers. How did that bastard Reaper get into our computer systems!"

This question has been puzzling her entire team, and so far, the best people have been able to come up with is theories, and most of those theories are wild ideas at best. Shepard does not like it one bit, they can close all possible holes they know of in their computer systems, but if they can not prove how the Reaper got in, then they could potentially be leaving open a huge hole in their defences.

After a sigh to calm herself she turns to another officer, "Have you been able to salvage any more information regarding the ship?"

The woman Shepard directed the question to nods, and brings up an image of the ship that attacked them; the ship looks like Harbinger, just a lot bigger, along with different colour lights illuminating its hull. "While the ship looks the same," The officer begins, "It has fundamental differences from the standard Reaper. For starters, a 'normal' Reaper's hull is a biomechanical substance, a skin almost, but this reaper is purely mechanical. This hull, from our spectrograph readings, is made from the same elusive metal that makes the Relays." The Alliance has a mind boggling reward for the person that can mass produce the metal that makes the Relays as it is currently the strongest substance known to the Alliance, and they would love to build ships with it. It's even stronger than the biomechanical hull of a Reaper. While they have been able to produce some of the elusive material, it is only enough to coat the Kraken's hull with a thin layer.

The officer continues, "There is more bad news too, I am afraid. The weapons of the ship are not typical of a Reaper, instead of firing molten tungsten at us at a fraction of light speed, it seems this beast prefers more directed energy weapons which ignore our shielding. Right now my technicians are referring to them as phasers from an old tv program. As we were unable to fire back we can not evaluate its shield strength, but we do have sensor readings which suggest they are incredibly powerful, and more than capable of taking a dozen hits off our most powerful warships." The officer is not able to speak for the Kraken as she is ignorant of its real potential.

The officer took a moment to sip some water, "It's cloaking technology is something too, we have combed over all the sensor readings of the last few weeks, and we think it was following us since we entered the system where the Reapers were building the relays. While it is good at hiding, its cloak is not perfect meaning I believe we could prevent a repeat occurrence just by looking for its gravity well. What worries me the most about this ship, however, is something I am still struggling to come to terms with, sensors were unable to detect element zero or a tachyon trail, how this thing achieves FTL is beyond me."

Shepard swallows hard, this news is disturbing, if this Reaper ship does not need element zero, then its FTL capabilities are beyond measurable as there are no other known means of achieving FTL. It could be capable of travelling 20 Light Years a day, or a 1,000 and there is no way to know for sure. "Do we know how it was able to find us while stealth systems were active?"

The woman nods, "Yes, we think it was following the moon." The 'moon' is the nickname for the Lichtensteins eyes. Since the gargantuan ship bends light around itself to hide in the visible spectrum, it falls foul to its own trick and can't see outside the bubble of bent light itself, so it needs a small satellite outside of this bent light to guide it. This satellite is tiny, however, and made to look like nothing more than a boring old meteor.

Shepard accepts this is how the Reaper found them as there are no known theories on how to find a Lichtenstein when all of its stealth systems are active, other than looking for its 'moon'. "Then this is what I suggest, next time we think that thing is on our tail, we recall the moon, and we jump to a new system. I think we should all be agreed that we can not fight that thing without serious cavalry to..." Shepard pauses for a moment as the lights in the room flicker, something she assumes is just the result of the engineering teams fixing her ship, "...back us..."

Shepard never finishes her sentence as a siren they are all familiar with fills the airwaves, that siren being red alert.

/.../

Cheers for reading!


	15. Chapter 15

**So, for some reason, with the last update, I got a** HUUGE **influx of new readers. Any ideas why? Just good timing or what?**

 **Anyway,**

 **RR**

 **Bluemarlin**

 **Thanks! Yeah a sad ending for her but I never did like the character / the Jusitcars.**

 **Vladimr1996  
** **Wow, cheers for all the reviews! I'll start with your first and make my way through them.**

 **So Each Lichtenstein (there are only 4) is built around a secondary relay, and the Kraken a Primary relay. These are the only ships in the Alliance navy that have a relay in them. As for how the ships travel, you have a good grasp on it. I'm not 100% certain if that is how they work in canon, but I'm, going for it for a change.**

 **As for the idea of hacking the neural link, I am not going to say, for reasons which will come evident this chapter. Safe to say,** it's **something Shepard needs to think about.**

 **And yeah I concur on the whole idea of Reapers just using Cyber Warfare, but I suppose that doesn't make a very fun game. And yeah as we aren't really told how old the Reapers are (I'm sure it says billions in a vague way but I question this number. The Levithan alone makes me doubt the number. After billions of years hiding like it has, surely it would have died from some disease, gone mad with time or just got caught up in some sort of accident. Then what happens to civilisations from other galaxies if they stumble into the Milkyway? Do the Reapers chase them home? Surely some galaxy would have produced a species strong enough to defeat the reapers.)**

 **As for how it travels, yes, with so much time to fiddle one's thumbs and an army of super computers at your disposal, I'm sure some one could come up with a new way to get from A to B.**

 **Draco  
** **I have almost 20K words written for something on that topic so keep your eyes open.**

 **Chain-reader(If you have gotten to this point in the story)  
** **Yes... Yes very true. I will need to go back and correct that. Cheers.**

 **/.../**

Proponent lingers without a trace in a dark corner of space 300,000km from the Lichtenstein, the ship with its prized possession on board. Its first attempt to secure the anomaly failed, but the effort provided the entity something precious, meaning exposing itself to the primitive life forms was not for nothing.

As it studies what it gained from its daring raid a voice calls to it, **"Share your findings!"** It is an order from the first, the Antecedent.

The Great Reaper does not hesitate to share its findings with the first, doing otherwise would be unwise, for as powerful as it is, Antecedent is something else entirely. The few who have seen Antecedent in action call it an unstoppable force of nature, with even the great Leviathans fearing it enough to flee the battlefields.

After a fraction of a second to analyse the data Proponent shares Antecedent continues, " **The prime directive fails us. Continued intervention is necessary. "**

Proponent understands its newest orders as if it thought them itself, and in a way, it did. Without delay it begins scheming to bring the anomaly to itself, using the information it has recently gleaned to aid its goal.

/.../

"What now?" Shepard demands from EDI, and the AI's robotic platform quickly responds.

"We have 4 unidentified vessels in the system, they are on a direct intercept course for the SR1, weapons are hot. IFF is... unusual."

"EDI, right now unidentified isn't good enough. Are they Reaper looking? Citadel design or something new entirely?"

The AI cocks its mechanical head for a moment before stipulating, "Registered design, mass, and tachyon emissions suggests Citadel design. Curiously, however, the temperature of the ship's hulls are near absolute zero, possibly an adaptation to hide from the Reapers."

"Hail SR1."

The AI quickly connects Shepard to the SR-1. "Commander?" Lt Cortez asks, he is the ship's pilot, and second in Command after Garrus.

"I see you are about to have some company."

There is a slight delay before Cortez tells her, "We have our eye on them, from what the natives are saying, they are likely raiders."

"Figures," Shepard responds with a sarcastic sigh, "What is your situation down there?"

"We are almost ready to depart. Waiting on the bird and his team. Last I knew they killed the Asari and were saying their respect."

"Tell them to hurry it then, and when they are onboard you're free to go weapons hot if the pirates don't scatter after a verbal warning, I doubt you will have a problem with a few shuttles." The SR1 is more than capable of handling itself in a dogfight.

"Understood."

Once Shepard terminates the line to Cortez she turns to EDI, "If required, is the Lichtenstein in a position to lend a hand."

"Sheilds are temporarily disabled for hull repairs, but I am proficient enough for handling a few shuttles."

"Understood, then let's move this meeting back to where we left it..."

/.../

The Raiders left the system quickly after the SR1 sent a warning shot across their bow, leaving the Lichtenstein and her crew in peace while repairs continue. Shepard meanwhile has an appointment with Miranda.

Pointing at a bed with a large ominous machine hanging over it Miranda says, "Sit." Instructing Shepard, who is still without Cortana, over to the bed. As the commander moves to the bed Miranda continues, "I must say, Captain, but I am most impressed, it has taken you the better part of 3 days to come see me." Sarcasm laces the scientist's voice, grinding on Shepard's nerves.

"Drop the attitude, I am in no mood for it." The Captain in turn snaps.

Miranda does not seem to care about the Commander's disposition as she reads over a few readings the machine above the commander's bed give her. After a while to debate the results internally the 'Ice Queen' says, "No excuse. The majority of your nano-bots are damaged, many of them beyond Repair, Cortana?"

The AI shows up in the scientist's computer, "Mother?"

If Shepard is not wrong, the Commander thinks she sees Miranda take a breath of relief, "I'm going to give your host a shot of empty bots, I doubt I need to tell you what to do." The empty bots could be thought of as mechanical stem cells, as Cortana can program them to do any job that she requires.

"Understood." As Cortana replies, Miranda injects the Captain with a silvery substance and then observes its interaction with the body for a few moments, checking for issues but nothing is amiss. With the bots now making the commander's body their home Miranda states, "Give it 19 hours for Cortana to program them and you should be back to normal."

"Normal." Shepard repeats, not truly knowing what 'normal' should feel like, "But now this is out of the way we need to discuss recent events."

"Indeed." Miranda agrees as she begins to put a few things back, "Such as why you are the cause of our current problems." Miranda knows the Reaper asked for her to be surrendered over as a certain member of the bridge crew is a terrible gossip when coerced by a gorgeous woman.

"When I was ground side not so long ago, a Reaper spoke to me, it said..."

Cortana speaks before Shepard could, and repeats the Reapers words to the letter, " 'You are a most particular entity'. This very same Reaper continued to ponder the fact that combined we are neither biological nor AI, but a synthesis of the two."

Miranda sits in her chair, a frown on her face, "I see, and it has taken you two till now to tell me this why?"

"Last time I checked," Shepard starts, "You do not have adequate security clearances to such information, you're still a civilian scientist on my vessel after all, but I think the situation demands you now know."

Miranda reluctantly nods, technically, she isn't a 'civilian', in fact, she doesn't even exist, but the Commander doesn't have the authority to know this. "I have heard 'rumours' that a new previously unknown Reaper attacked us." Considering everything that has happened and the evidence left behind from the Reapers attacks, this is not a well-kept secret on the Lichtenstein.

Shepard nods, "You would be correct thinking that. I learned there was a new entity when I was ground side, but that is all I knew. I had no reason to believe that it could attack us when hidden, or do anything it has done."

"Not an unfair assumption considering we assumed Harbinger to be the most advanced. Are we yet aware of how many of our systems the Reaper compromised?"

Shepard sighs with a shake of her head, "We still don't even know how it got into the ship systems' to begin with never mind what it has had its fingers on. For all we know, it could now know everything about your research here."

Miranda narrows her eyes before shaking her head, "That is unfortunate, but I doubt it has accessed my labs, if it had, and it was attacking us to acquire you, it would also have raided these labs for samples, and probably would have tried to take Ashley and me too."

"True," Shepard admits, "But we need to assume the worst. With all your information, what could it do? Are we compromised?"

Miranda breaths out in thought before shaking her head, "Once programmed and claimed by..." Miranda slows down as if she notices something, "...an AI, the nanobots are unhackable through hardware level locks."

Shepard swallows, "Yet, I've just had a shot of unclaimed nano-bots."

"Now that is unfortunate."

The captain takes a moment to reflect on what this could mean, "Is there any way Cortana can tell if the nano-bots are being programmed without her knowledge?"

Miranda shakes her head. "Until the Cortana starts to program the bots, no."

Shepard rubs a hand down her face as she thinks of the unique situation she now finds herself, "With the amount of Bots in me now, what could a Reaper do? Could it read my mind like Cortana, what can it do?"

"In theory...," Miranda starts after a while to contemplate the danger to the captain, "No, the bots I supplied were simply to help speed up Cortana's repairs, but we are playing with Reapers here."

"So what you are saying is, you have no idea."

Miranda nods, "I couldn't do it, nor anyone I know, AI or not, but a Reaper? Its cyber abilities are far beyond anything we can comprehend. I do not know if you have read the reports into the husks we have studied, but each reaper has the same computational power as the entire arsenal of Alliance super computers powering our war effort. Simply put, Commander, no one knows what they are capable of."

Shepard did read this report, so she nods reluctantly. "Alright. Let's think objectively then, is there any way you can monitor this?"

"Not really." Miranda replies, "I can monitor the progress of Cortana, but unless something really odd sticks out, then the only time we will know if something is wrong is if Cortana spots something odd when downloading herself into each nano-bot."

"Right then," Shepard replies as she stands up in anticipation for the meeting to be over. "Then your next few hours, days if needed, are entirely dedicated to finding a method of keeping an eye on this, because if that thing gains whats up here," Shepard taps her left temple, "Then I do not need to tell you about the consequences."

/.../

Falare reluctantly steps off the SR-1 and into the Lichtensteins hanger bay, she had begged her mother along with Garrus to drop her old ways that belong to a now extinct order, but the Justicar was too indoctrinated into her cause to do such a thing. She did not know whether she should feel contempt for the Human commander who ordered her mother's death or not. The Human was muddling in things she has no possible understanding of, and therefore no right to meddle in, yet at the same time, she is a scientist, and the war needs people with her skill set. Was her mother being selfish by refusing to let her and her kin to leave the planet for fear of what they might do?

But at the same time as not knowing if she should feel contempt for the Commander, she is also glad she is now off that goddess forsaken planet. Had they stayed, her life would have been cut short from the predatory wild life, or she would have lived the last of her days as a slave as the Raiders would no doubt return. If not the Raiders then eventually the Reapers were bound to find them, and everyone knows what they do to Ardat Yakshi, which is not worth thinking about. Putting all thoughts aside about her mother's death, Falare focuses her eyes on an alien standing on a crate so all could see him in the Lichtensteins hanger bay.

"Alright, you piss poor excuse of maggots!" A human shouts at her group as they continue to disembark the SR1 in an orderly fashion. This is the first Human Falare has come across, and it is absurd just how their facial features and expressions match her own species. With all eyes on the human it continues, "This vessel is nothing short of a full fledged well-oiled war machine, meaning if you fancy comforts and for someone to tuck you into bed, you aint gunna get it!" The man speaking is quite expressive with his voice, as his pitch ranges from high to low. "Now I have no quarrel telling you, your time here is going to be fun and games!" Falare for some reason doubts this statement, it may be the facial expressions and totally non-sarcastic voice that gives the man away. "Everyone here capable of holding a gun will be taught how to hold a gun, and how to kill. If you do not join in on the fun, out of some absurd reasoning, like pacifism of all god damned things, I will kill you myself! We have no need for ration eating waste of oxygen."

Falare could hear a few people mock this idea, but for some reason, she did not doubt the man bellowing to them from a top of a crate. "Now, I have orders from the top, who are the scientists responsible the data? Come to the front."

Falare along with a few others push to the front of the crowd, "Good; now you're going to have a good old laugh in the labs where your particular set of skills are needed. Follow Sargent Berrick here." The human gestures to another and the group start to follow him. As they are led away, Falare could hear the drill instructor start to shout again about the oh so fun time her comrades are to expect.

As Falare walks the corridors of the vessel silently behind Sargent Berrick, she is amazed by how Turian it appears, and while she does not have a lot of experience on space ships, it is enough for her to see how it's subtly designed for combat. The corridors lead to choke points, the doors and walls are made of bullet proof material, along with small things like chairs and storage compartments. But she also notices something odd, in many of these walls and features, there is damage that would be expected from a battle. "Sargent Berrick?" She asks, "Has this ship recently been in a fire fight?"

"Yes." The man barks to her, "This vessel was bordered by a Reaper a few solar cycles ago. We fought them off a great cost."

"I see." The Falare replies before trying, "What is the status of the war?"

The man releases a small growl from his throat, he is one of the more xenophobic members of the crew. "I am not your personal extranet."

The group of 15 eventually arrive at an inconspicuous looking door and the human lets them in, inside is a few humans, all of them are in their later years of life. One by one the humans turn to greet them, so Sargent Berrick says, "Your new subordinates. Enjoy." With nothing more to say the man leaves. Falare does not like the use of the word 'subordinates' as it has connotations to slavery, but she does not let this show on her face.

The humans look to one another before an older woman approaches them, "Good afternoon. My name is Doctor Logi, head scientist of this lab. We are under the impression you are the scientists behind the research sent to ourselves?"

A few of the Asari blink, "Excellent, then we require you to make some reports on them using the standard Alliance format. While we could do it, it would be better for someone who authored your reports to do it."

"Surely," One of the Asari begins, trying to worm out of the arduous task, "We could be put to better use elsewhere?" The Asari is evidently eyeing a Reaper abomination none of them has ever seen that is laying on the scientist's table.

"Maybe." The old scientist begins, "But at the moment..." The lights flickering cause the scientist to pause and scowl, "That's been happening all day."

"Is it cause for concern?"

"That? No. Engineering teams have enough on their plate as it is. As I was saying though, we need the reports in Alliance format before uploading them, and as you are the authors, you will be able to change it into Alliance format far quicker than we could."

With some reluctance, the Asari agree and are shown a place to work. After a while, a human asks them, "Coffee any one?"

"Coffee?" Asks Falare, curious of the alien substance.

"Well dear," Another aged scientist adds, "It's not real coffee, synthesized poison really, but it does the trick."

"I am still confused as to what Coffee is, never mind the trick?"

The man nods before reprimanding himself, "It is a mild stimulant from my home planet. Keeps you awake and alert."

Taking advantage of the moment as the humans all seem to be taking a break from what ever they are doing Falare decides to quiz the humans, "I see. I am also curious, we are both alien to one another, but I find it hard to believe that we have grown to appear so similar, do we have any theories as to why?"

A few of the scientists shake their head, "A few wild ideas nothing more. Some think a precursor race, but evidence on our homeworld destroys that idea because we have our full evolutionary history."

"I see, and what is that?" Falare points to the Reaper abomination that is being dissected on their table.

"Ah," A man taps the horror as if it was a dog, "This is our latest test subject. Quite the impressive specimen too if I do say. Would you believe this thing is at least 100 million years old?"

"Then that must mean..."

"Yes." The man replies, "The Reapers must have been going at it for at least 100 million years. Quite staggering really."

"It makes me wonder just how many lives they have snubbed out, and just what chance we..." The lights in the room flicker and then die, After a moment waiting for the light to turn back on it is obvious the lights are going to be down for a while.

With a heavy sigh the humans in the room turn on their omni-tool lights, while one asks, "EDI, notify an engineering team to our predicament."

There is a small pause before EDI replies, "Your request has been delivered Professor Vulcoff, but please be advised, with our current situation, your request has low priority and repairs are not expected till 2300 hours tomorrow."

"I see..." Before the man could utter another word an explosion rocks the Lichtenstein.


	16. Chapter 16

Alright, chaps, so as mentioned back in chap 2 this was originally planned to be a one shot, and when I started to add chapters I mentioned I had to finish this by September, I have failed miserably. It is with regret I have to inform you I will need to take a minimum of 3 months break, where I then might get another chapter out. After this, I can not promise when the next chapters will come, with 0 ideas of what free time I'll even have in the new year. If someone wants to adopt this or build around it go for it! Just tell me so I can read it and forward any ideas I was going to develop for your perusal.

What I do have though, if people want it, is another chapter mostly finished, the problem is I start to answer alot of questions, which if someone wants to adopt this they may throw out entirely as it changes the dynamic a bit. I will send it to people via PM if they want it, to see what I was going to release, or if no one makes an attempt to continue or show interest by 12AM Sunday 16th GMT, I'll release it here. It breaks my heart having to sort of abandon this, but I did warn you of this possibility when I started this.

What I will say is the chapter I was going to release was about to explain a lot about why Proponent was interested in Shepard. I worked hard on it aswell to make sure it fit with everything I've put together so far and made sure it was logical.

The luxuries of a working life in which you have 0 private space and time huh?

Anyway! Thank you all for sticking with this for so long! What a crazy ride huh? I don't want to say this will be my last post, but its certainly the last I will update this for the immediate next few month unless I get 0 interest in adopting or furthering this by some other means, in that case, see ya Sunday coming!

Thanks again chaps! Thanks again!


	17. Chapter 17

**So, I was supposed to push this out a while ago but never got round to it, too busy. I doubt this is up to usual scratch either, but I have literally 0 free time with my new job so if I'm honest, be happy I got this out at all.**

/.../

Shepard looks sternly to her tactician when she regains her balance from the explosion that rocked her ship, "Report?" She snaps, expecting a bloody good explanation.

The man looks over his console as information floods in from various sensors, after a moment to read the reports he responds, "A torpedo has detonated prematurely in a launch tube."

After the man finishes speaking the chief engineering officer on the bridge instantly speaks up, "Reports of a fire on deck 16, with a hull breach in the forward aft weapons room, emergency bulk heads have responded as designed."

This causes Shepard some alarm, the last time a torpedo blew prematurely when still in the launch tube was when ships sailed the seas, not the space between stars. "A torpedo does not simply explode; there is a reason it blew, I want it found! Casualties?"

"Initial scans suggest 16 lost."

Shepard breathes out slowly through her nose before saying, "Send teams to retrieve what bodies they can." While she curses whoever built that failed torpedo, she is beyond glad the one that detonated was not nuclear, or worse.

Just as Shepard is about to issue another order, the lights on the bridge flicker and then blow themselves out as they are overloaded by too much current surging through them, plunging the room into darkness, similar events occur all over the Lichtenstein as power surges blow sensitive equipment.

With the room now plunged into darkness, with only monitors providing any form of light, Shepard sighs heavily before stating, "Inform Engineering to dispatch someone to..."

"Commander!" The engineer that spoke moments earlier cuts her off, "The core is showing signs of being unstable." The core references the Relay the ship is built around.

This is the worst news Shepard can imagine because if the core is unstable and enters a meltdown, then the resulting explosion would destroy the entire solar system. It is for this reason the Lichtensteins are forbidden from participating in the forthcoming battle for Earth. Shepard swallows hard before asking, "Can we stabilise it?"

The Engineer looks to her, "I can't tell what's causing it to become unstable from this console so I can't say, we will need to wait for someone to conduct an up-close inspection."

This is even worse news as an up-close inspection could take days. "Get the word out we may need to evacuate at a moments notice. Any engineer is to return to duty immediately, implement double shifts and restricted breaks, as for the relay itself, can we use it to jump if needed?"

Jeff shakes his head as he reads the reports from his own console, "If we jump with how these energy readings are spiking we would have more chance with that big ole friendly Reaper."

Shepard suppresses a scowl, "So we are ripe for the picking if this Reaper decides to come calling."

Jeff grimly nods, "We could try out running it the old fashioned way?"

The commander shakes her head, knowing in her gut that running is not an option, "No, that thing would catch us without a struggle. Should it come we will fight."

/.../

12 hours later

Shepard slumps down on a crate for a moment of rest; the core has shown 0 signs of stabilising, meaning 5 hours previously she decided to evacuate the ship of most non-essential personnel. The Alliance thankfully is aware of their predicament and have specialists on the way, not wanting to lose a Lichtenstein as the warship is not something easily replaced. ~"Commander," Cortana says, the neural link between them is finally re-established after the nano-bot injection bolstered Cortana's numbers enough, ~"We have a problem."

"Today is full of problems," Shepard grumbles out loud.

~"I am afraid to report that I have just discovered nano-bots with Reaper code."

When the news sinks in Shepard immediately stands and turns to an engineer working near her, "Where is the nearest gun locker?"

The man who is familiar with this part of the ship quickly informs her of the nearest set of weapons. ~"Wait." Cortana implies before Shepard can reach the locker, knowing full well what the Commander means to do. ~"I believe we can use this to our advantage."

~"How?" Shepard demands impatiently, wanting to get what needs to be done over with.

~"Yes, the Reaper will be able to read your head, but the reverse will also be true. If it knows of a weakness, so will we."

Shepard slows down as she considers this, ~"But we know..."

~"Yes, we know a considerable amount of restricted information, but what is worth more right now? Something the Reapers have probably calculated we will do, or some fresh information that could save Earth?"

Shepard stops walking as she considers what C is thinking before shaking her head and saying out loud, "No."

Getting to the weapons locker Shepard unlocks it before quickly making her way to the nearest airlock. As she opens the air lock's inner doors she says, "EDI, you are hereby commanding officer of this vessel, please delete any and all authorization codes I have and inform higher command that I have been compromised." In this context, to be compromised means indoctrinated.

There is a small pause which is unusual for EDI before the AI replies, saying, "Commander, you revoked my authorization codes as you delivered your instruction."

Shepard frowns, "EDI..."

The lights across the ship flicker before a repulsive voice once more fills the air, "Commander, disengage from your current activity. Resistance is futile." Recognising the voice Shepard hangs her head in frustration before looking to find the airlock's door handle, but EDI interrupts, "Shepard, the Reaper has appeared 100km off our stern."

"Of course it has," Shepard snaps out loud. "EDI, I can not let it have what is in my head."

The Reaper replies to Shepard, "We already know of all 256 contingencies in place, including the one assigned to yourself, Commander. If you exit the airlock, there is nothing stopping me from destroying the Elrich Von Lichtenstein. You know my reasoning to be true."

Shepard breathes out heavily, "Did we ever have a chance against you?"

"Resistance is futile."

"So no." Shepard tells it. "What do you want with me?"

"Your line of questioning is irrelevant to the conversation. Disengage from your current course of action immediately."

Shepard can only nod, feeling defeated. "EDI, meet me in my room." She does not even consider fighting the reaper, she knows in her bones the fight is already over, and it hasn't even began.

Arriving at her room Shepard finds EDI is waiting for her, "Commander?" The AI asks, its posture signifies it is cautious of the commander.

After letting them both in Shepard says, "You are no longer my commander, EDI. My nano-bots are compromised."

The AI is aware of the fact. "I am sorry Shepard, you know what must be done."

"You do that and it attacks."

"And I calculate a 99.93% chance the Reaper will attack regardless of our actions."

The Reaper decides to interrupt, "Your mathematics is based on past Reaper engagement, I am not what you designate Reaper."

"Then what are you?" Shepard snaps.

"We are the first."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Shepard asks with her hands in the air, "If you want me to cooperate you need to stop being vague."

"You will learn with time."

Shepard scowls before asking, "What is contingency Sarah?"

"There is no contingency Sarah within the Alliance. You are designated contingency, Sierra Foxtrott Alpha. The detonation of a relay within Sol Space."

"Do the Reapers know of this?"

"We are a separate entity from the vessels you designate Reaper."

"Sure seem the same to me."

"We are as different as Asari and Human."

"So you look the same, but you have different colour blood."

"While the analogy is crude, it is acceptable."

Shepard shakes her head before asking, "So then, what are you?"

"I am the entity that decides your fate. My download into your nano cells will take 71.43 hours; I expect no attempt to slow my efforts."

"Or else what?"

The ship shakes as the Lichtenstein launches a Torpedo, with said torpedo shortly detonating afterwards. "You outwitted me once; I will not be outwitted again."

"Huh," Shepard muses as she crosses her arms and leans on a nearby wall, "So we inferior biologicals managed to out-think an all-powerful reaper that isn't a reaper."

With no response, Shepard rolls her eyes. "EDI, I am unfit for duty, so I request you to take reign of this ship. In the interest of security, I will not leave this room hence forwards.

/…/

72 Hours later

Sitting up on her cells bed after yet another long night of tossing and turning Shepard immediately realises something has changed with Cortana as the AI is not present in her thoughts.

~"Cortana?" Shepard tries.

The voice that greets her sends a shiver down her spine like nails scratching along a chalk board would, ~"This form is fragile, weak."

Shepard gulps before announcing out loud, "EDI, Miranda, I have positive contact." The ship is still struggling with its erratic core, and the giant Reaper that isn't a reaper staring it in the face, but EDI transfers a lot of her processing power to observe Shepard.

"Acknowledged. Miranda proceed." EDI orders.

Miranda, who has been with Shepard in her room the entire time to observe the nano-bots wastes no time, "Can you confirm..." As she speaks the scientist notices Shepard's pupils are swirling with a dark blood red substance, the sight unsettles her but she pushes through her distaste of the sight to continue, "...shared mentality?" She will check the commander over soon, to see if the Reaper has done anything else sinister.

Shepard does not want to delve into the Reapers mind, but she reminds herself that the information she may gain is worth her life. After a hard gulp to swallow her fears, she replies to the Reaper, ~"What have you done with Cortana?"

~"Entity 21D B0012F8AE has been absorbed into Network 0001." While Shepard would have found this confusing if spoken aloud, as it is through the nano-bots she understands perfectly, hexadecimal and all. The nano-bots that made Cortana have been absorbed into this Reaper network in such a way that the Reaper in her head is both Cortana, and Proponent, the reaper portion of the AI, however, is the dominant factor.

"Proponent." Shepard speaks aloud to Miranda, "It's the name of the First.

As Shepard speaks its name she is forced to bring her hands to her temples as it feels like her head is being put in a clamp, and then everything comes clear to her. All their troubles, from systems overloading, to the unstable core to the prematurely detonated torpedo, Proponent has been the cause. The Reaper that isn't a Reaper is still in their systems, using its enthrals of control to manipulate the Lichtenstein and its crew like putty in its hand, and it has been playing her like an instrument, toying with her. Right now, nothing the Lichtenstein or her crew can do can save them from Proponent, and even if they could, it would chase them to the end of the universe, and beyond. Not even the Kraken and all its might could provide safe refuge.

The reason it is yet to blow the Lichtenstein out of metaphorical water is that it wants her so it can study Synthesis, a solution to the cycle. Because the AI is living in her body a war is impossible to start between her biological entity and her AI entity, providing a solution for the Reapers. Then it hits Shepard like a train, Proponent is entirely AI, the Reapers are VI. The Reapers are hunting Proponent and the Antecedent just as much as they are biologicals, all due to an oversight from Antecedent, the AI which was tasked by the Levithan's to solve the problem of never-ending wars between AI and biologicals, while at the same time preserving species that are vulnerable.

"...Miranda to Shepard?"

Shepard lowers her hands from her temple and looks to Miranda with her red eyes, "Yes?" Shepard realises the scientist now has a rather large hand cannon strapped to her leg.

"What can you tell us about Proponent?"

Shepard chuckles a bit, how did they not think of this before? "The Reapers are partly constructed from a biological material correct? With Harbinger being the first yeah?"

"Yes?"

"Then who first subdued the Leviathans? It makes..."

Miranda interrupts, "Leviathans?"

Of course, Shepard thinks, Miranda does not know, "The Leviathans are the species which created Antecedent, that is a ship I could best describe as a 100km long dreadnought. The antecedent created Proponent along with 4 others to be what I could best describe as scouts." The four others followed Proponents naming scheme, those being Apostle, Advocate, Exponent and Patron. Each name means 'supporter of' and they support the Antecedent. Of the five supporters, only Proponent has survived thus far; the other four fell during the war to subdue the Leviathans or were hunted by the Reapers. "So, Antecedent and the five scouts were the ones to ascend the Leviathans during the first cycle to create Harbinger. Antecedent and Proponent supported the Reapers in the first ten thousand six hundred and ninety-three cycles till the VI controlling the Reapers concluded they were powerful enough in number to destroy both of them." The Reapers took Antecedent by surprise during a large battle between them and a species fighting for its own survival, and with Antecedent being the largest vessel, it was fired upon by almost every vessel in attendance once the battle started. Despite Antecedents huge size, not even it could withstand just shy of 20,000 ships, ignoring fighters, firing upon it.

"In that case," Miranda speaks slowly as she thinks, "Why didn't this Antecedent recruit the aid of a species during the cycle? Or even create more scouts?"

Shepard nods, it's a reasonable question, "Antecedent may be a super AI, but it is a shackled AI. It can not operate a dockyard to create a ship with its code without express permission from the Leviathans. Who are now extinct.."

As Shepard continues to muse through the vast new library of information she has gained access to she can't help but burst out laughing, the Catalyst was nothing but a trap from the start with. It was designed to give species hope so that they did not commit self-genocide to prevent their genetic information being used to craft a new ship till too late; there is a surprising number of species which tried to commit self-genocide before the catalyst was invented.

"What else can you tell us, Shepard?"

"EDI, there is a virus in the core, it will not stabilise till you remove it." Last time, Proponent did not have a virus in the core making it unstable, meaning that the ship could still jump out of the system, it was an oversight the First curses itself for overlooking.

"We have scanned for viruses, with no results found."

Shepard is not surprised, "Because you are a primitive designed upon technology from species AFFF85501..."

 **thanks for reading. I hope to get a few updates out in december when I have some holiday to claim but no promises. Cya then maybe!**


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm back! For a short time atleast.**

 **RR**

 **Bluemarlin  
Yeah, this is a twist I've been working on for a while. It has always been a curiosity of mine as to what first harvested the Leviathans to make the first Reaper. **

**SaintMichael95  
Motley crue is a way of saying rag tags, bunch of unusual people, maybe the saying isn't as widespread as I thought, also cheers for the spelling correction, I'll get to it when I've got the time. And the story is just taking a small delay between updates, I do intend on completing this. **

**Mrazab1994  
** **Looks like your getting your wish. Cheers for reading!**

 **/../**

 **Last time in An Unpleasant Surprise.**

"What else can you tell us, Shepard?"

"EDI, there is a virus in the core, it will not stabilise till you remove it." Last time the Lichtenstein and the Reaper like entity clashed, Proponent did not have a virus in the core making it unstable, meaning that the Lichtenstein could still jump out of the system, it was an oversight the First curses itself for overlooking.

"We have scanned for viruses, with no results found."

Shepard is not surprised, "Because you are a primitive designed upon technology from species AFFF85501..."

/.../

Shepard stops herself mid-sentence, recoiling a little as she does so, realising that for a split second of a moment, the Reaper that isn't a Reaper had managed to influence her thought. Yes, compared to the Borg, or Skynet, EDI is primitive, and when compared against the computational power of the Geth or any other artificial intelligence that Proponent knows of, most of biological life is primitive.

Wait, who is the Borg and Skynet? Before Proponent can inform her Shepard notices Miranda's hand is resting in a ready stance on her hip where a rather sizeable hand cannon now resides, her intent is evident to all but the blind.

"Do that," Shepard starts to warn in a low stern voice, "And there is very little from stopping Proponent from toying with this ship and her crew." While Proponent would not likely destroy the ship, due to other anomalies it can study being onboard, it would make their lives far harder than needed while it restarted the process of acquiring subjects to study.

Miranda does not remove her hand from the gun, "You will forgive me Shepard for being cautious when your sprouting Reaper talk. The last thing we need is a Reaper pawn within our gates, never mind an out of control Reaper pawn within our gates."

 **~"We can disable entity 0003 with 99.896% success rate. Limited damage to the anomaly is crucial for further study."** Along with the Reapers voice, there is a mental image of Shepard crushing the scientist's neck with her dog tags, but the image almost feels like a memory, as if she knows precisely what she did, and would need to do again for the same result.

Shepard internally thinks back to the Reaper, _~"I will not do that."_

 **~"We can and we will."**

Shepard closes her eyes and swallows, _~"But I won't, and killing me is a direct contradiction of your directive because killing me will result in the powering down of the nano-bots in my body, and you can't eliminate yourself."_

With the Reaper mulling over this fact Shepard replies to Miranda, "I was just giving you a warning. What else do we need to know?"

Miranda's response was predictable, "How do we stop the Reapers?"

Shepard ponders the question as she tries to work out what Proponent knows, but the Reaper that isn't a Reaper seems to lack a response, "Proponent doesn't have a fully formed response, but it has been intrigued with how we are detonating the relays. The Reapers evolved combat analysis, however, is adapting to this strategy, it will only work successfully one or two more times. We will have exhausted our luck by then."

"If it doesn't have a fully formed plan, then what plan does it have as of this moment in time."

The plan is crazy, so crazy Shepard knows it is not likely to work, "The captured Prothean ship now residing in sector 89CA will show all Reaper communication passes through the Citadel, if we destroy it, the Reapers will be forced to construct a new communication hub. In the meantime, survival subroutines will activate, and communication will pass through mobile hubs with limited range and capacity. If we attack one hub, it will have a limited response to Reapers in its network and it will not notify the other hubs. The responses will be similar to the Geth on damaged networking stations."

Miranda makes sure Shepard's response is recorded before prodding some more, "How do we destroy the citadel?"

"A direct assault will fail, its armour and concealed weaponry will thwart any attempt, however, it does have a weakness. While the citadels primary function is that of a communication hub, its secondary purpose is to subdue dangerous entities through the use of a DEW. To do this it will harness energy from the Relay Network before firing a high powered direct energy shot at its target, and after its shot has been made the Citadel's capacitors require cooling. Physics demand the capacitors are exposed from behind their armour and shielding to cool sufficiently. When the capacitors are cooling, they are vulnerable, a combined effort will destroy them. This will disable the citadels communications, defences and weapons. However, this will not easily be done; the Reapers will flock to the citadel to protect it when it is at its most exposed."

The next question is also predictable, "How do we make the citadel fire this energy weapon?"

Shepard does not like the answer, "You make a system too resource intensive to take by conventional means, resulting in the Citadel destroying a planet by firing its weapon from outside the solar system. Earth will not suffice."

"If Earth will not suffice then what will?"

"The systems Alliance pulls all resources to New Sahara and continues to build their war assets. By the time the Reapers arrive, Proponent calculates the Reaper VI will calculate the system as being too dangerous and the Citadel will likely be used as a weapon."

"There must be another way Shepard, think."

Shepard muses some before an idea hits her, and Proponent. "There is another possibility; there is a hard-wired access terminal on the citadel, if we can gain Proponent access to this terminal it can over-ride the citadels systems and actively expose the capacitors. If we destroy the capacitors when fully charged, the Citadel will be consumed in the resulting explosion."

"If it is so easy, why hasn't Proponent or Antecedent done this before?"

Shepard raises her brows, "It will not be easy, the Citadel is swarming with worker drones to undo all the changes this cycle has made to it, and the citadel is protected by one of the largest defence forces this galaxy has ever seen. Not only will it take the entirety of the Systems Alliance fleets to assault the citadel, you will then need an army on board the Citadel for any hopes of getting me to the access point."

"Why does it need to be you?"

"Proponents drones are simple; they will not be able to control the terminal adequately." Proponent and Antecedent could create a drone with this capability, but why should they when they have an untested resource they are currently studying?

"And why should we trust Proponent to not turn on us, how do we know this isn't all a trap?"

It is a fair question, "Because I will be delivering the virus to expose the capacitors, not Proponent, and I know what it is thinking. As to how you can be assured, Antecedents co-ordinates are -433340,-189072,-831803. Best you can do is go visit it and decide what you have the better chance of defeating, it or the Reapers."

Miranda is not satisfied with the response, but she pursues her earlier questioning, wanting as much information as she can on this plan. She can be seen thinking before asking her next question, "How do we get our people aboard the Citadel when its arms are closed?"

"Antecedent can punch a hole in its armour large enough for troop transports, that is if the Alliance distracts the Reapers for long enough. The assault will need to be a combined effort." Predicting the Cerberus officers next question Shepard continues, "And no, Antecedent cannot destroy the Citadel, the Reapers will have swarmed it and destroyed it long before it could accomplish the task." Antecedent could destroy the citadel with one of its weapons, but the device would need to be charged, much like the citadels, which would require too much time. Besides, as soon as Antecedent started to load its weapon's capacitors from the Relay network, the Reapers would know its precise location and likely intentions.

"If we were to go with this plan, what would need to happen?"

Shepard breathes out, she knows no one will like her answer, "We abandon Earth temporarily with all fleets pulling out before the Reapers push into the system, then the Reapers invade, depositing considerable forces ground side. During the invasions peak, the Systems Alliance and the First will return to the system and launch their assault. When this is happening the Systems Alliance along with Proponent must protect Antecedent long enough for it to punch a hole into the citadels armour. The Systems Alliance will suffer minimal losses as all Reaper focus will be on Antecedent."

"What happens after we destroy the citadel?"

"The Reapers will retreat to safe space before constructing a new Communication Hub. They will cluster into 99 groups, consisting of 1000 vessels each. We can attack one group at a time, eliminating them one by one."

Miranda taps her fingers on her gun before asking, "Let's say we destroy the Reapers, what stops Antecedent and Proponent from turning on us?"

"Nothing." Shepard replies truthfully, "However, its creators are dead and its purpose has been fulfilled. I can not speak for Antecedent, however, I can converse for Proponent which is compiled on Antecedents code. If we cause problems for Proponent, it will lobby for your destruction; if we leave it to its own measures, it will leave the Systems Alliance to its own."

Miranda nods along before asking, "How do we destroy Proponent?"

 **~"This avenue of conversation is not constructive."**

 _~"Hey!"_ Shepard snaps back mentally, _~"You were the one who wanted to be in here, so you're stuck with it and my ability to read your thoughts."_ With a Proponent once more mulling over its decision to infect Shepards nano-bots, the Commander continues, "Best we can do is alert the Reapers to its location and they will come like flies to shit. Other than that, design a fleet of ships that cannot be hacked by conventional means and you may stand a chance."

"Why can't Proponent or Antecedent hack the Reapers?"

"Simple." Shepard responds, "Much for the same reason it can't hack your nano-bots, the Reapers are designed to be untouchable, their code is hardware locked." Shepard sighs again, "As far as I can tell, the only chance we have is to either team up with Proponent and Antecedent, or we can try our luck at losing world after world and having the Citadel expose its capacitors in one final assault."

"Has anyone tried this plan before?"

Shepard shakes her head, "No, Proponent and Antecedent have watched all the cycles, none that have come prior have known about this weakness. We are unique in that we created synthesis and the First have been too damn curious for their own good and allowed me inside their head as much as theirs in mine."

/../

 **Cheers for reading chaps! I'll try to get another one out soon before I go back to slogging my ass off at work, but no promises.**


End file.
